The Golden Rule
by Queen
Summary: They always say, Do Onto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You....(complete...3rd in the Kami/Dreamweaver series)
1. Recap

GoldenRuleRecap.html

The GoLden Rule   
Recap:_ Kami, The Accidental Senshi_

__

  


  
Hi minna!   
As always, Sailormoon and all things related to it belong to the wonderful Naoko-hime, not to my poor little self. Do not sue, because I am, as I said, poor.   
Well, I always wanted to write another Kami/Dreamweaver fic, and here it is...so strange, accidentally making a senshi like this...(Kami was originally going to appear only in '_The Bloom of the Mountain Cherry_.')   
So I hope you enjoy this fic...we'll see how it goes. I'm not much for writing episodic-seasonal type stories, but more 'movielike' ones.... And as the majority of my fics, '_The Golden Rule_' will be manga based. At least about 90% of it, anyway. There is a very major anime element in here, but you will have to wait a bit to see what exactly it is. So the story picks up just after the completion of '_The Weaver of Dreams_.'   
For those of you who are new to this, here is a super fast recap of the first two stories. Keep in mind, the Kami character was not originally going to appear in any further than the first. In order to understand 'The Golden Rule', spare a few moments to scan this 2-fic-in-a-nutshell recap. 

  
'The Bloom of the Mountain Cherry'   
Inspired by my reading of '_The Tale of Murasaki_' by Liza Dalby. An Ami-centered fic. I constantly hear about Ami/Mercury being 'weak' (a thing that drives me insane to hear) and so I used some of '_The Tale of Murasaki_''s backdrop and scenery to explore what exactly is means to be 'weak.'   
Ami feels that she isn't strong enough as a senshi, and that she and her contributions are insufficient to the team. She begins to question why she is needed there, especially when Neptune can also act as the part of the Senshi of Water. Then as she sleeps, she begins to dream of a young woman named Kami. Kami treats Ami as though she has known her for a very long time, giving her the nickname, 'Kanashimi-chan,' (sorrow or sadness) as Ami asked her if she is a kami. (a spirit or god) Kami practices meditation by copying out poetry, and Ami watches what she writes, eventually taking it to Setsuna to try to read the slightly unusual dialect. From this, Ami is able to tell that Kami is copying Heian period literature (ie, _waka_-poetry- by Murasaki).   
As Ami becomes more alienated from the other Inners, she sees Kami again as she sleeps, each time learning something else. She discovers that Kami has a dream to live in the capital city, (Miyako, modern Kyoto) but due to her father's illness, she remains in a small palace in the country. In fact, much of Kami's life is devoted to practicing poetry and playing the koto (a musical instrument) so that she may someday go to court. During this, Ami begins to have a feeling that something is wrong with Kami.   
The next time she goes into the dreamworld, Ami tries to ask Kami if she knows magic, or if something is haunting her. Kami sidesteps the questions, and Ami is pulled away from the dream too quickly. Each time she returns to the Heian dreamland, Kami seems more remote, and her behavior more erratic. Then, on another visit, Ami arrives to see Kami very ill, with a severe fever. She tries to bring her temperature down with her elemental magic, (water for dehydration, ice for the temperature) but when Ami wakes up, she believes Kami died. This pushes the depression further- still useless, still unable to do anything.   
Usagi and Minako visit, in an attempt to cheer her up, but it only helps a little. Exhausted, she dozes off, and sees Kami for an instant. But her eyes were blind.   
Kami appears a final time, and this time shows Ami what happened to her in life. Kami, blinded, was unable to fulfill her dream of living at court. One of the places they had seen in the dream was a river, and Kami showed Ami of her death. (Kami's, not Ami's.)   
As for the conclusions drawn, you'll have to read the fic to understand. ^_~   


"The Weaver of Dreams"   
Over the course of writing '_Bloom_' I found that I liked Kami too darned much to let her story end the way it did. She was a ghost there, mainly seeing in Ami someone like herself- someone giving up on herself, and so she intervened. So 'Weaver' picks up just after 'Bloom' lets off. My original intention was not, _not, NOT_ to make a senshi up. Hence my reason for calling her my 'Accidental Senshi.'   
Opening ,'_Weaver_,' the senshi (we see though Ami's) are having a similiar dream. It is disturbing, and Rei begins calling the other Inners, each of them in turn rushing to Usagi's house, finding that Mamoru and the Outers (the Outers having a car) have beaten them there. An ambulance is on the way, and Usagi has fallen into a very bizarre coma.   
The next day, they visit their princess at the hospital as Ikuko, Kenji and Shingo are leaving. Mamoru and Chibiusa are already there. Setsuna does not know why this has happened, and all reports say that Usagi is merely asleep- no apparent cause for this. Inside Usagi's mind, she watches her enemies emerge- first Beryl, then Wiseman, then Nehelenia, and, finally- herself.   
As the doctors examine Usagi, they allow Mamoru and Chibiusa to remain- the rest are kicked out to the cafeteria. They try to discern what it is that could cause this, assuming magical, and an enemy. Rei, Michiru and Hotaru (Hotaru tried to heal her magically) could not sense anything from Usagi, other than herself. During the conversation, Ami makes the comment that perhaps that is exactly it- Usagi is battling herself, as she had recently. The others demand to know why Ami thinks this, and tells them an edited version of what happened with Kami. Setsuna asks how Kami was able to pull Ami into her dreamworld, and Ami replies she does not know. Setsuna reacts strangely to this, and says it is nothing. Makoto, already worked up over Usagi, demands to know what Setsuna means, and with urging from the others, tells them a small story.   
At first it sounds very much like a tale of Hotaru's birth in the Old Silver Millenium. However, the child the queen of Saturn was carrying was stillborn, due to a miscarriage. Later, Hotaru was born, and the Silence Glaive passed to her. Mythologically, the older brother of Death is Sleep. And so the power over the realm of dreams would have stemmed from the planet Saturn. 'Kami' would have originally been Sailor Saturn- but without ever being born, it passed to Hotaru. In effect, Kami becomes the guardian of dreams by default- another reason she's an 'Accidental Senshi.' Before another child could be produced, the Old Silver Millenium fell. Thus no mention of a soldier of dreams- none existed. And Kami did not progress with the others to the future in the Fall because she was not alive to be sent ahead by Queen Serenity.   
Hotaru reacts to this odd news by thinking over her life, and the lack of blood family in it. Rei suggests they 'get' Kami to help them- but Ami warns that she has no way contacting her. Kami has been 'dead' for nine hundred years. The dreams have stopped. Makoto makes an off hand remark about finding her. Setsuna has a unused key that could take them to the realm of the dead- (Sailor Pluto after all) but it is dangerous and never been done. Hotaru volunteers immediately. Ami with her. Setsuna forbids any others.   
Meanwhile, Usagi continues to dream. She sees the fall of the Old Silver Millenium- of her and Endymion's attempted escape from the battle on the moon. She watches Endymion die at the blade of Beryl. (manga based, remember?) The 'other' Usagi remains, and twists around Usagi's perceptions of what happened in the past.   
Setsuna, Hotaru, Ami and Rei go to the temple to attempt the journey. Touching the key, Hotaru and Ami are transported instantly to the underworld, and discover that their key has split itself. Each has a copy of the original. Wandering though an empty city, they get help from two spirits (who assume they are also dead) and are told to follow the Yellow Brick Road to find who they're looking for. Then they dissapear.   
Usagi again has a dream, this time the manga conclusion of the Nehelenia battle. With the excpetion that she is not the princess- Minako is. Usagi is extremely upset by this. The 'other' Usagi then introduces herself as Fury. Mythologically, the Furies were the goddesses of guilt and conscience. Fury tells Usagi that she is 'testing' her.   
Ami and Hotaru travel the Yellow Brick Road for what seems like days. Very tired, they take a break, and are attacked by harpies. Mythologically, (Yes, I try to use lots of mythology in the fics!) harpies sought out spirits to punish for their sins in life. They henshin and battle, aided by a transforming lioness-woman who introduces herself later as Atalanta.   
Atalanta takes them to the blind prophet Tereisas, who is practicing the play the _Eurmenides _in a theatre. From him they learn how to manipulate the world around them, and quickly find Kami from there, under a sakura tree.   
Kami sees them, and believes they are disguised harpies, come to taunt her. She attacks, and they henshin, trying to convince her they are friends. She relents when Mercury uses a phrase she herself used in '_Bloom._' Saturn steps though Kami's shields, and strikes her with the Silence Glaive. Hotaru shows Kami the end of the Silver Millenium, and the place she would have had in it. Kami agrees to help Usagi. This said, they return to the underworld, and Kami has a silent henshin. She tells Ami and Hotaru to unite their halves of the key, and that will return them to the waking world. They do so, and discover they have only been gone for a moment.   
Kami arrives and encourages Usagi to break free of Fury and her influences. (Fury also makes a lot of fun of 'another damn senshi!' appearing, lol ^_^) Usagi names Kami 'Sailor Dreamweaver' and Dreamweaver summons a naginata (a polearm- like a spear with a long blade at the end- not unlike a glaive) and Usagi uses this to kill Fury.   
Sailor Dreamweaver watches the 'party' as Usagi wakes up. She is still within a mirror, and the others, in their happiness at seeing Usagi awake, have forgotten about her momentarily. Dreamweaver hears a voice in her head, the thoughts of a patient in the next room, who is very afraid of the surgery he will be undergoing. Determining she will help, Dreamweaver enters his mind.   
Thus we begin our tale.   


Enjoy.   
-Queen   


fic complete 8/16/01   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Prologue

GoldenRulePrologue.html

The GoLden Rule

  
  


Prologue: 

Standing barefoot in her kitchen, Mizuno Ami plunged her hands into the soapy dishwater, the heat momentarily making the skin of her hands tingle. Too long in the water, and they would begin to prune, the fingertips withering like an old woman's as she did the housework. Glancing at the pile of dirty dishes and pans, she smiled faintly at the grime and sticky remains of dinner. "And the water shall wash it all away," she murmured to herself, picking up a plate and setting it into the water, the air catching on the bubbles and sending clean suds flying into the air around her face. She sneezed lightly as the soap got into her nose, and like a cat she tried to wrinkled and unwrinkled it for relief. With a sigh, she watched the flying soap bubbles dance around as they fell to the counter.   
Wryly, she whispered the shout, "Shabon Spray!" and brought up a handful of white detergent-formed bubbles, blowing them out of her palms and sending them soaring again.   
Behind her, the sounds of voices poured out of the CD player. Her mother had brought the album home yesterday, some new idol group of three boys. The current song was slow, and to Ami it was reminescent of elevator music. But then, the lyrics were lovely. Almost as though they were trying to get some point across, calling for someone. Ami tried to recall the name of the group, but gave up after a moment with a shrug. Idols came and went with the seasons, and yet the pile of plates would ever remain in the otherwise empty apartment.   
A pot went into the hot water, only slightly dingy in the way dishwater quickly became. She scraped away the dirt, and allowed her mind to drift of into the quiet around her, the singing voices only a faint noise in the distance. It was peaceful solitude.   
And then it was broken by the sharp ringing of the phone.   
With a sigh, she left the pot in the water, grabbing the towel and trying to dry her hands as she took the phone off its cradle. Carefully, she balanced it between her shoulder and cheek. "Moshi moshi?"   
"Oy, Ami-chan?"   
Ami paused for a moment. She knew the voice, but it took a moment to place it. When she did, she blinked in surprise, flipping the towel over her free shoulder and putting the reciever in her other hand. "Haruka-san?" A call from the Outer senshi was unbelieveably strange, and from Haruka even stranger.   
"Is everything all right?"   
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," the older girl told her off handedly. Almost too offhandedly. Puzzled, Ami tried, "Are you sure? What is it?"   
Haruka's voice was still a bit distant, but she sounded almost as though she were trying to contain laughter, or maybe a secret. Or both. But Ami couldn't figure out what in the world could get Haruka to sound like this. "Michiru's got me on phone duty. I'm just giving all of you a call. We're having a birthday party tomorrow, and you're invited."   
"A birthday party?" Ami repeated, confusion growing. Mentally, she ticked off the birthdays of all the senshi. Rei's was over with. Nobody had one in May. "Haruka-san, who's having a birthday?"   
There was the sound of Haruka trying very hard not to laugh. A tight silence with muffled chortling in the background. Ami got the idea Haruka was standing, partly leaning over, clutching her side with one arm as she tried not to laugh at the younger girl. "Just come over tomorrow, at one o' clock. And don't forget to bring a present. Michiru's baking a cake, and I just got back from the store...we have enough food for an army- even the odango."   
"All...all right...." Ami stammered, and then managed, "I'll be there."   
"Sugoi! See you tomorrow then, Ami-chan."   
Click.   
Dial tone.   
Confusion.   
What in the world was that all about?   
  
  



	3. Chapter 1- Sticks and Stones

GoldenRuleChapter1.html

The GoLden Rule 

  


'_Do Onto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You'_   
_-The 'Golden Rule'_

  
  


Chapter1: Sticks and Stones   
  


Turning over the package in her hands, Ami ran her fingers across the happy white and silver paper, which happily declared, 'Happy Birthday!' in a pretty, scripted font, pink streamers parading around the letters. It was with a kind of awkward uncertainty that she walked down the sidewalk. Haruka's calling hadn't been some odd dream. Not that she hadn't had odd, practical dreams before...dreaming of returning books to the video departmet of the library was one thing; senshi calling her was another. She thought.   
With a sigh, she turned the corner, looking around the landscaped yard. Trees had blooming leaves on them, evidence of the rains sweeping though the month. Even now the world smelled of a new rain from the morning, a few puddles reflecting testament to the water from above. But as Ami looked up ahead, she saw a familiar, raven haired head striding across the lawn, past newly planted flowerbeds. "Rei-chan!" Ami called, gathering up a handful of cream colored skirt to avoid getting any mud on it as she hurried. The other senshi paused, turning and waving quickly as she waited for Ami to catch up. Like Ami, Rei carried a present, wrapped in blue and gold paper, a fluffy ribbon on one corner, at an awkward angle, since the top of her box was uneven.   
"Hi, Ami-chan," Rei greeted, and the two matched strides as they began their way up the long drive. "Any idea what this is about? I got the weirdest call from Haruka-san last night. Is it Hotaru's birthday or something?"   
Ami shook her head, a negative gesture. "No...Hotaru's was a couple months ago, if I remember correctly. I tried to call Usagi-chan, to see if she knew, but-"   
"She was on the phone with Mamoru all evening," Rei rolled her eyes, shaking her head with a sigh. "I talked to her this morning. She had no idea, either."   
"Looks like a surprise party for us then, too," Ami commented as they went up the steps. A swing had been added, and in the faint breeze, it creaked as it moved back and forth on its chains. Rei jabbed the doorbell, and several notes played up and down the scale within the house. Moments passed as they waited, hearing the sounds of movement within.   
The door opened part way, and Michiru poked her head around, smiled, then opened it the rest of the way, standing aside as the two new arrivals stepped in at her gesture. "Konichiwa," Michiru greeted them, tucking a stray wave of teal colored hair behind her ear, the rest tied back at the nape of her neck in a white scarf. She sported the clothing of the kitchen, a wide apron across her dress and blouse. "Here," she took their jackets as they shrugged out of them, quickly hanging them in the closet in the entry way.   
"Mako-chan is here, at least," Rei noticed, seeing a hat hanging on the hall tree.   
"Hai," Michiru confirmed with a mischivious smile. "They're in the library, with Setsuna. Here, I'll-" she was cut off by a yell from the kitchen, Haruka's voice carrying clearly though the house.   
"Michiru! Where do you want these things?!"   
"Hopeless," Michiru mumbled with fond exasperation. "Utterly hopeless." She called back, "I'm coming, Haruka!" Turning to her new guests, she finished quickly, "Makoto is here, as well as Minako. The library- ah, Ami-chan, you know the way," she made a smooth gesture towards the hallway as she walked past. "Make yourselves comfortable as we wait for the Princess and Prince."   
"Michiru-san," Rei asked, "who is this party-"   
"Michiru!" Again, from the kitchen. "Is that supposed to smell like that?!"   
This time, Michiru frowned, fine lines forming between her brows. "You'll just have to wait for the others," Michiru the frown vanished and she winked conspiratorially, then hurried off to rescue Haruka from cooking. Attempting to cook, at least.   
Rei and Ami looked at each other, still at a loss. "Well, Rei-chan, maybe we can try Setsuna-san."   
Rei lifted an eyebrow, and Ami shrugged. "We can always try."   
"I think that's blood from a stone, Ami-chan."   
Ami laughed, and they made their way down the polished wooden floor.   
  
The library was a grand room, with books organized by Setsuna, spines out in military form, ordered, not by title, nor author, but by original publishing date. Only the senshi of time could fully make out the exact order of the volumes, though Hotaru was in the library often enough to find whatever she wished. Minako appeared to be trying though, a few steps back from the wall, neck craned so far she was liable to tip over backwards as she attempted to see the ceiling. She stepped backward, heels entering the checkerboard of light from the high window. Light draperies filtered some of the sun's brightness, and Makoto had elected to position herself within the duller light, aimlessly staring at the sheet music on the grand piano, the seat of which she had perched herself on. Setsuna, the third and final member of the waiting group, was leaning up against the shelves, an open book in hand. She glanced up as the two entered, smiling slightly and nodding her head in acknowledgement.   
"Ah! Rei-chan! Ami-chan!" Minako exclaimed as the two were heard. "Over here!" She left her book-gazing and stood by a folding table, where several presents lay out for display. Bright colors shouted birthday wishes as bows flowed over the tops of their gifts. They were small gifts, packaged in an odd assortment of shapes, one lumpy, another square but with a sloping side, one small and square, a rectungular one and a boxy one. Ami and Rei set theirs down to join them, another, smaller rectangle and the lumpy topped one of Rei's.   
Rei began almost immediately, turning to the quiet senshi against the bookcase. "Setsuna-san, what's going on?"   
Setsuna looked up again, meeting each girl's eyes momentarily, settling on Ami. Then she smiled faintly, said in her usual cryptic way, "You'll have to wait for the others," and continued to read from her book.   
"We tried already, Rei-chan," Makoto informed her drolly, eyeing the stoic Setsuna, who was perfectly intent on ignoring them. Still, each got the feeling she was laughing inside, at some cosmic joke the Outers all seemed to understand. "We have to wait for Usagi-chan."   
"Perfect," Rei grumbled, not altogether in a bad mood. She was used to the queen of tardiness and her tendencies. Still, Usagi would be getting an earful for being late. "We'll be here forever."   
"Not if Chibiusa-chan has anything to say about it," Minako commented wryly. "She's almost as bad as you, Rei-chan. Besides, I'll bet Mamoru-san is coming too. Ne, Setsuna-san?"   
The older woman didn't look up, but they noticed her lips curve up into a faint grin.   
Minako smiled too, winking. "See? Anytime now."   
And on cue, the sound of the chime ran though the house, announcing the arrival of more party-goers. And a few seconds after that, the sounds of their fearless leader were heard echoing down the hallway, exuberant as always.   
"Happy Birthday!" Usagi announced cheerily to the waiting room in her entrance. She was on Mamoru's arm, and Chibiusa was shaking her pink haired head as her future mother excitedly looked around. "So, whose birthday is it?" Usagi asked as she looked around for someone who looked like it was their birthday. She was holding another present, in taped and re-taped red wrapping paper, Usagi's finest skills at their best. The blank stares met hers, and her face fell a bit. Instantly, she recovered, beaming. "Come on, Mamo-chan! Let's go see what Michiru-san is doing in the kitchen, then!"   
"Wait," Setsuna warned, speaking without being asked for the first time. "You'll see soon enough."   
"Oh," Usagi managed, frowning down at her present. "Oh, Mamo-chan! Show me all the books!"   
"Usako..." Mamoru began as she dragged him off, exclaiming on the multitude of literature in the room.   
"Usagi-chan?" Makoto asked, a little surprised. "Interested in books?" She glanced at Chibiusa, who was setting her own present- a large bag with tissue paper sticking out the top- on the table with the rest of the packages. The younger girl shrugged, looking at Usagi.   
"She's been like this all week. Ever since she got out of the hospital. It's 'Mamo-chan, watcha reading,' or, 'Mamo-chan, what's that book about?' or even, 'Mama, show me how to cook that,' Chibiusa looked confused between despair and amusement, not really sure how to react. "She came home from the library the other day with a book on ethics. Usagi-baka. Ethics. Been walking around talking about human nature. It's weird. She almost sounds like she gets it."   
The eyes of the other Inners were huge, staring in amazement, first at Chibiusa's words, then at Usagi, who was trying to ask an astounded Setsuna what good books there were on political science. The four girls exchanged a glance, and Rei grudgingly ventured, "Well, it's about time she started studying something."   
"It'll be good for her, to know about ethics," Ami agreed. "When she's Queen, she'll have to make many decisions relating to fair judgement."   
"Yeah, but it's Usagi-chan," Minako commented, still watching Usagi. She was still holding her present, and was trying to flip though a large book. Still as clumsy as always, she was doing an intricate balancing act between the two, though managing to keep them both from falling. "It's strange."   
There were quiet nods.   
"I'd still like to know, though," Rei sighed, "whose party are we here for?"   
There was a quiet laugh, and then they heard amusedly, "For mine."   
Several sets of eyes swung around to see the owner of the soft voice. Only one, though, gasped in surprise. That sound caught Usagi's attention from her juggling, and there was a second sound of breath being whisked away.   
Two figures were standing in the doorway, the first Hotaru, a smile on her face as she entered, standing just aside for the young woman following her. Each had approached silently on slippered feet. The second figure peeked forward shyly, still smiling faintly. A long black skirt fell to her ankles, and a purple shirt lay slightly loosely buttoned, the sleeves rolled back to her elbows. Long black hair cascaded to the floor, bound up in loops behind her head, the coils just visible in the doorway's shadow. But her pale violet eyes were bright, and smiling as she entered. "Konichiwa, Kanashimi-chan," then she turned to Usagi, who was open mouthed, "Usagi-sama."   
"Kami-chan?" Ami managed, staring as Hotaru took the ghost's hand, leading her into the room. At the name, it took the others a moment to recognize it. Then they too stared, eyes wide and mouths open as well, disbelieving.   
"It's nice to see you both again!" Kami beamed, watching Usagi drift forward, Mamoru just beside her. "I'm so glad you could come to this birthday party. Hotaru-chan says it is what you do for those who have birthdays now. Haruka-chan insisted we have one. I hope you don't mind."   
"Mind!" Usagi found her voice, and leapt forward, smiling. "Of course we don't mind!"   
"Sorry about the last minute invitation," another voice added from the doorway, where Haruka and Michiru now stood, Michiru laden with a large cake.   
"We didn't want to give you enough time to figure it all out."   
"How?" Ami croaked, still amazed that Kami was there, real, standing right beside her. Not in a dream or in the afterlife.   
"Hotaru-chan struck me with her Glaive," Kami explained. "You remember seeing that, ne, Kanashimi-chan?"   
"Hai..." Ami trailed, amazed. "But..."   
"I remember seeing Usagi-sama wake up. And I kept hearing voices, all around me, though the mirrors in the medicine building-"   
"Hospital," Hotaru provided instantly, quietly.   
"Hospital," Kami reminded herself firmly, as though trying to plant the word in her mind. Her tones were similiar to theirs, but certain syllables were accented differently, lightly archaic. But she continued, "I got very tired eventually, and I fell asleep. I woke up in Hotaru-chan's room here."   
Setting down the tray with the cake, Michiru wiped her hands on her apron, then untied the bow on the back, setting it down with the cake and presents. "We found her when we got home early that morning. She was lying in the front yard, asleep. We have no idea how she got there. Haruka brought her in."   
Kami was nodding, smiling at the tale. "I have been here for a week now! And since I was reborn, I am having a re-birthday. I'm honored you could come, minna-sama." Kami gave a small bow, politely welcoming them.   
They bowed back, still staring at the living ghost.   
"Arigatou, Kami-san," came Mamoru's voice clearly. Eyes turned to him, and Kami tilted her head, puzzled.   
"You're welcome..." she paused for a moment, then, as though considering something, "Mamoru-sama. But for what?"   
He glanced down at Usagi for a moment, and she blushed. Releasing Usagi, he stepped forward, offering his own present. "For you."   
"Ah. Arigatou," she bowed again, looking the small box over. Bright orange and yellow confetti sprayed across the surface of the paper, and she held it up to her ear, catlike, and looked it over. "I thank you for your gift...I will treasure it." She then began to stare at the box, uncertainly. There was a chuckle from Haruka, and Kami then turned the box around, hesitantly. She looked at Hotaru. "I take the paper off it now?"   
"We usually wait until after cake," Hotaru informed her, glancing at the pile of presents.   
But Usagi broke in, "No, no! Let's open presents first!" She pushed her badly wrapped gift at Kami, who managed to grab it. "Open Mamo-chan's first, then mine!"   
"Ah...oh...kay!" She exclaimed awkwardly, looking at Hotaru to make sure she had gotten the idiom right. "Did I say it right this time?"   
"Hai," Hotaru laughed, dragging Kami to the couch. "Bring the presents over here!" She called, and the astounded circle of senshi obeyed in a dreamlike trance, bringing their gifts over.   
Sitting down on the sofa, Kami neatly arranged her skirt, setting herself down. Hotaru seemed to have taken a posessive wing over Kami, and sat beside her, waiting as the others gathered around, standing. Setting Mamoru's and Usagi's presents in her lap, she picked up the small one first, pulling out the bow and then staring at it a moment as she planned her way of attack. Slowly, she slid a finger under the edge of the paper, pausing at the tape. "This is the thing you keep in the kitchen, Michiru-chan!" She commented as she pointed at the tape. "In the roll!"   
Michiru nodded indulgently, then shook her head, smiling. Kami, too, had 'been like this all week', exclaiming over every little invention she had never before seen. Tape, for example, was a mystery of sticky one-sidedness. The paper crackled as she peeled it away and back, revealing a box of thin grey velvet. A brow knit as she pried it open, drawing out a small, delicately rendered circle, thin threads of silver twining their way in spirals though it's center. Two tiny silver feathers hung off the tip of the chain, where the links met the outer ring. "It's lovely," she looked up at Mamoru, and said, tears in her eyes, "Arigatou." Turning the item over in her fingers, she fumbled at the clasp, trying to get it around her neck. It fell neatly around her thin neck, just visible before the buttons closed her blouse.   
"It's a dreamcatcher," he told her quietly.   
"Dream-catch-er?" repeated carefully, in query, holding the chain up so that she could see the ring, and the webbing within.   
"Hai. Far away from here is a land called the 'United States.'" When Kami shrugged and looked bewildered, Mamoru continued, "Long ago, people there believed that the netting would catch bad dreams, and only good ones would come though."   
Mamoru smiled faintly, and got elbowed in the ribs by Usagi. "Mamo-chan. Why did you buy such an approriate gift for someone you never met?" It was mock suspicious, her hands on her hips, almost accusingly.   
"Because I knew whose party I was coming to."   
Usagi blinked. Then, she wheeled on Haruka. "Haruka-san! Why didn't you tell me, too? I could have kept it a secret!"   
"Yeah, right," came both Rei and Chibiusa at once.   
"It's the truth!"   
"What is this?" Kami interjected, neatly avoiding the oncoming arguement. She held up the newly unwrapped present from Usagi, three girls standing heroically on the cover, swords in hand, the title declaing it, '_Magic Knight Rayearth._' "It looks like a book, but," she flipped the pages, shaking her head. "It's all pictures!"   
"No, look! Read the bubbles!" Usagi pushed her way forward, pointing at the images on the page. "You read the bubbles, and the pictures tell the story."   
"Oh," Kami managed, looking startled. She smoothed the pages down, looking at the drawings, intricately depicting the kidnapping of Princess Emeraude.   
"Baka," Chibiusa muttered at Usagi. "What a thing to get someone who saved your life!"   
"I didn't know it was Kami! She was dead!"   
"That's still a silly thing to get someone for their birthday! Anybody can go buy manga!"   
During this, Kami had tilted her head to the side, looking. A smile formed on her face, and she looked at it. "Kirei!" She turned the page slowly, captured in the pictures. "Ah, Usagi-sama, I like it very much!"   
"See?" Usagi beamed, happily stepping back for the next person, now that she had gone. Kami turned to the pink haired girl, and offered a hand as she set the manga down beside her. "You must be Chibiusa-chan. Hotaru-chan has told me much about you. May I have your gift next? I would very much like to see it."   
Distracted from an argument with Usagi, Chibiusa quickly made her way forward, bag in hand. "I didn't know it was you, so I tried to get something I thought anyone would like. I hope you don't have one already."   
"Ah, but that is the advantage of being new to the world. Everything is very new! Didn't you need all new things when you first came here?"   
"Hai, but I had Luna-P with me then, too."   
Kami hesitated, blinking, then leaned over to Hotaru. "Lu-nah-P?"   
"The toy with magic," came Hotaru's whispered reminder, and Kami's face lit up as she remembered the story.   
"Ah! Hai, I remember that part now. Arigatou, Hotaru-chan," Kami said as she began to remove the tissue paper from the bag. White sheafs floated to the ground around her feet as she withdrew a fluffy, stuffed white rabbit in a pink dress, a little bow on each of her ears. A smile had been stitched into the animal's lips, and it's glass eyes were blue. "Kawaii!" Kami exclaimed, setting the bag aside and testing out the softness of the fuzzy creature. "So soft. And no, I don't have one yet, Chibiusa-chan. I will keep it on my bed, like Hotaru-chan does with her bear-shaped one."   
Glad that her gift was appropriate, Chibiusa beamed, stepping back for another person to crowd in. But Kami was looking around, and caught Ami's eye. "Kanashimi-chan? May I have yours next? I would very much like to see what you brought."   
There was jostling as Ami presented hers, and Kami carefully peeled back the layers of wrapping. Underneath the white paper, a book emerged, hardcovered and old fashioned drawings on the cover. Kami concentrated as she read carefull, "_Ali-ce's Adventures In Won-der-land_, and, _Threw_-no..._Through The Looking Glass._" Kami ran a hand over the smooth cover, fingers trailing over the image of Alice, her face reflected in the surface in the mirror, blonde hair choppily falling around her face. Kami laughed as she opened the book, turning the pages. "Who is this Al-ice?" she asked, eyes full of curiousity.   
"The book was written by Lewis Caroll." Ami elaborated. "Alice is a young girl, who falls down a rabbit hole, into a land where everyone is 'mad.' She is the only sane person in a land of insanity."   
Kami listened carefully to this, head tilted to the side as Ami explained. "A fairy tale indeed. Then I will use this to get used to the...ling-ual shifts..." she looked furtively at Setsuna, to make sure she had said it right. When the older girl nodded, Kami continued, "in the language, since my time. I need to improve my reading skill. Being illiterate...." Kami trailed off, a frown of distaste on her lips. "Arigatou, Kanashimi-chan. I will enjoy reading of the tales though the mirror." She smiled, and Ami bowed slightly as she backed away for Minako's turn.   
Ami escaped the crowd around Kami and the couch, retreating to stand in the safer area of Setsuna, who had fitted herself into the graceful dark curve of the grand piano. "I can hardly believe she's here," Ami mumbled softly, partly to herself, partly to the senshi of time.   
"It does seem odd," Setsuna replied. And, Ami seeing she was in a more talkative mood, tried to ask:   
"Setsuna-san. How?"   
Her head shook slightly as she considered a reply. Biting a lip, she folded her arms, glancing down at the shorter senshi of water. "The Saturn power has never been fully understood. Life is cyclic. Time...time is cyclic. As is Death Reborn. It is its nature, not only to destroy, but to begin again. By striking Kami with her Glaive, Saturn set off a chain of unusual events. There are warpings in the future ahead. Small, but distinct." Setsuna's garnet eyes narrowed slightly as she observed Kami, currently asking what 'taffy' was- Makoto's present. Usagi was only too happy to demonstrate, and Kami was offering those still around her a sample of the sweets. "A familiar presence. Dark and light, both. Strange."   
"Hm," Ami sighed, folding her hands before her as she looked between Kami and Setsuna. "How is she doing? Adapting?"   
A shrug. "Well enough, for what she's been though. We waited awhile to tell you about her coming, to let her adjust and adapt to her new time frame. We didn't want to wait too long though. All in all, I suppose she's doing better than I could have expected. Hotaru rarely leaves her. That's a help. We've gotten her cleaned up a bit- trimmed her hair so she won't trip on it in her new shoes." Setsuna stifled a wry grin, trying not to laugh at the memory of Kami's adamant face- she did not want her hair cut! Still, it was long enough, down to her knees yet, wavy and thick as could be.   
"Ah!" Kami was exclaiming again, opening another package. Two large, round candles, one pink, one purple, inside a bit of tissue in a cheap wooden box. At Rei's urging, she held them to her nose, smelling them. One rose-scented, one lavender. "Arigatou, Rei-chan!"   
"And," Setsuna continued thoughtfully, "her reactions to new inventions- it's strange. Like seeing myself in reverse, Ami-chan. I've seen too many inventions. She too few. We showed her the television for the first time yesterday. Explaining it. So she wasn't too surprised at the 'people in the box'- she expected it. But unfortunately, the station it was on was playing 'Akira' at the time."   
Ami winced. "I take it that didn't go over well?"   
With a sigh, Setsuna pushed a lock of green-black hair over her shoulder, out of her face. "We came in at the end, at the stadium. It took us nearly another half hour to convince her that the actors were not actually hurt. She knows what theatre is, but not special effects. Not like that. She was almost hysterical." Her lips grew thin. "Switching times like this is not natural. We must be cautious, playing with the timestream."   
"Chibiusa..." Ami began, then halted. About to say, 'Chibiusa-chan didn't cause any shifts in the timestream,' she realized that was a massive mistake. Wicked Lady, Wiseman, the Black Moon. Nemesis. There were many battles before once again the river of time stablilized itself. "Hai. I understand. We must be cautious, looking for any new enemies."   
There was laughter from the group before them, and they heard Minako say, "Then we'll have to get your ears pierced! Can't be a senshi without earrings! It's like not having a tiara!"   
Kami was laughing, fingers pressed to her mouth as she tried to stifle the smile. "Then I will, Minako-chan. Michiru-chan has many earrings. You'll let me borrow them, ne, Michiru-chan?"   
The violinist laughed in return. "But with such ones on your own, why need mine?" Kami turned over a pair of simple silver hoops, small and smooth. Then she looked up at Setsuna, and beckoned.   
"Setsuna-san. May I see yours next? I am enjoying this very much!"   
"Of course," the eldest senshi replied, picking hers up off the table and approaching. Kami took the flat item, frowned at it, and then peeled away the delicate tissue paper around it. Opened, it revealed a large book, the title declaring it, "A Brief History of the World."   
"Arigatou, Setsuna-san," Kami nodded seriously. "This will be a great help. I have missed much in the last nine hundred years. I will need a bookcase soon, for all these volumes. They are so well made," she sighed wistfully, running a hand over the spine of the book, and the binding. "Such fine paper, too. None of it wasted at all. I wasted too much paper with my copying."   
"But you can't copy anything without pens, Kami-chan," Michiru told her warmly, handing over a fancily ribboned package. Large flowers bloomed across the paper, the peach bow taking up nearly the entire top. "Here. From one artist to another."   
Sliding the expansive bow off the sides, Kami opened the gift to reveal a smooth box, polished to a shine. Black stenciled cranes swooped over cloudy mountains, painted onto the top. Slowly, Kami opened the lid, and within lay a set of five brushes, the handles of bamboo, with white hairs flowing in varied thicknesses out the end. A clay pot of ink sat to their head, a cork stopper keeping it from spilling out. "Michiru-chan! These are so lovely. Arigatou. I will use these often."   
"Open Hotaru's next," Haruka urged, managing to get an arm though the crowding Inner Senshi bodies. As Kami began to focus on her new gift, Haruka tapped Mamoru on the shoulder, lipping the words, "Come on," to him, and motioning to the door. Puzzled, but thinking she probably needed his help, Mamoru followed Haruka out the door.   
Meanwhile, Kami was unfolding the petals of gold and purple wrapping paper. A flat present, with the top sloping down slightly to the right. Pushing it back and away, Kami drew a sharp breath. "What a perfect painting!"   
"It's a picture, Kami-chan," Hotaru reminded her.   
People crowded around, eyes peering as Kami's face welled up with tears. "Yes...you told me about the cam-er-ah." She tapped the image of a chibi Hotaru, in Soichi's arms. "This...this is you, though, when you were little, ne, Hotaru-chan?" The little girl was waving at the camera, her mother trying to keep her from moving too much, and spoiling the shot, as her father tried not to drop the squirming child.   
Hotaru was beaming as she pointed out the three smiling people in the picture. "That's me, yes. I was four. That's Poppa. And that's Momma. We went on a picnic that day, and took a picture. It's a photo album. See?" She drew a finger over the silver scrolling around the picture. "You can get it engraved, too. You put the pictures in these," she opened the album, and showed her the plastic sleeves. "Slide them in. You can keep all your memories in these."   
"A..arigatou...Hotaru-chan." She shut the book, and stared at the cover picture on the front for a moment longer. "It is the best present."   
"But not the last!" Came Haruka's grunting voice from the doorway. "Hey, Michiru. Want to give us a hand?"   
Both Michiru and Makoto broke away from the cluster of girls, helping Haruka and Mamoru angle a bulky object though the doorway. Finally in the library again, they managed to get the thing set down without pinching too many fingers. They were all on their feet now, and Kami was staring down at the cloth covered lump. "Haruka-chan, what is this?"   
Dusting off her hands, Haruka grinned. "You'd better like it. It's mostly from me, but it was Michiru's idea. Sent me all over Tokyo looking for the thing, too."   
Kami knelt down, folding back the cloth. One fold back, and she made a squeak of excitement, abandoning politeness to rip away the cloth. "A _koto_!" She shouted, clapping hands then running them over the board of it. Face alight, she began twisting all around it, looking from all sides. The wood was smooth with age, dark in spots, light in others, where the sun had shone on it for too long. It was lightly decorated, only at the edges with a faint scroll design.   
"It's an antique," Michiru informed her. "We had to order strings though. And we'll have to find some picks for your fingers."   
"It's perfect!" Kami laughed with delight.   
"Welcome to the family," Usagi said with a grin, an arm around Mamoru's waist. Kami looked up and around at the people circling her.   
"Arigatou. To all of you. Thank you so very, very much."   
"Hey!" Rei exclaimed, counting on her fingers as she thought. "I just realized something." Curious eyes turned to her, waiting for an explanation. "If today is Kami's birthday, this makes Kami a Taurus. None of us are."   
"Wouldn't my birthday- or re-birthday- have been last week, though?"   
Rei thought about it. "Late April is still Taurus."   
"What is 'Taurus'?"   
"An astrological sign," Rei explained, palms upward as she considered. "I can tell you about them, if you want."   
"I'd like that."   
"Ah, Kami-san," Usagi asked, tapping the still-kneeling Kami on the shoulder. "Can we have your cake first? I'm kind of hungry."   
"You're always hungry," Chibiusa grumbled, shaking her head. Then she grinned a little as Usagi prepared to argue. "But I am too- this time. Can we eat first?"   
"Hai," Kami laughed, coming to her feet. 

Haruka grabbed a chair and let Kami sit at the folding table, tucking it under her as she drew closer. "Hotaru-chan," Kami asked. Her younger 'sister' appeared at her side, and Kami continued, "You didn't finished telling me about this part. What do we do now?"   
"We sing happy birthday, and you blow out the candles." Hotaru provided, looking at the cake being centered on the table by Michiru. Rei was going for the matches, and Ami was trying to unobstusively make sure the fire senshi didn't act too true to her element, accidentally setting something ablaze. "Oh!" Hotaru exclaimed as an afterthought. "Don't forget to make a wish. But you can't say what it is to anyone, because then it won't come true."   
"Hai," Kami agreed, certain to keep her mouth shut. Such important traditions would not be broken by her. Certainly not.   
Minako hit the lights, and the room dimmed a bit, the sunshine outside still making the room a misty haze of sunlight and candlelight.   
"...seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty," Usagi was counting. "Kami-san, you're twenty?"   
"Hai!" Kami agreed. "So I'm an old lady, then."   
Setsuna remarked with dry humor, "I resent that."   
"Ah! Gomen nasai! You've aged so well, Setsuna-san."   
The eldest senshi shook her head, smiling. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Kami-chan."   
They began to sing, and Kami looked around her, amazed that they all knew the exact words. "Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear Kami, Happy Birthday to you!"   
_I can hardly believe all this. So much has changed in my life, in such short a time. Or long. So long. And yet so little time. Looking between them, they are so different. Ah, Usagi-sama is so out of key! And Chibiusa-chan too. But they sing with all their might, anyway. So I laugh and smile, and try to hum along and learn the words to this birthday-ing ritual. Mamoru-sama has a wonderful voice, very low. Haruka-chan and Michiru-chan offset each other in perfect harmonic. Mako-chan is doing well enough- laughing as she sings. A happy sound. Rei-chan and Minako-chan are also very good. Perfect pitch. I must ask them someday to sing as I play. Ah, Kanashimi-chan. A voice so light. And how similiar Hotaru-chan and Setsuna-san. How similar they sound, though Setsuna older. It is a simple song. Ah, and it holds up well under Usagi's poor pitch._   
_ They are all so close. And how quickly the accept me. 'Welcome to the family,' says Usagi-sama. Family. Ah, I know what my birthday wish shall be!_   
"Many more birthdays to you!" They belted out in grand finale, and Michiru had miraculously produced a camera out of a pocket. A bright flash lit up the room briefly as Kami took a deep breath, cheeks puffing as she let loose a gust of air across the lit wicks of the tiny candles, deep in white frosting.   
_ Let me never, ever lose any of them. Ever._   
_ And twenty candles winked out._   
__   
  


Her lips tasted of acid.   
It was a sour flavor, metallic and bitter. Turning to the sink, she rinsed her mouth out with water, spitting and rinsing the foul taste away. There was still a faint smell, and she looked over at the toilet, and the remains of her very small dinner. She looked away, and put the lid down, flushing it away, far away, out of sight, out of mind, out of body. Rinse and spit again the flavor of partially digested salad going down the drain.   
The door had a mirror, full length, on the back of it. Easy to do makeup and dress, to make sure everything was just perfect. Her eye caught the reflection of herself there, and she crumpled the paper cup in hand, pitching it into the wicker wastepaper basket. What she saw in the mirror were her expectations, though perhaps not reality.   
"Couple more pounds..." the girl murmured to herself, running a hand over her non-existent flabbiness.   
_Did you see her? Ha. Can you believe that?_   
Round, chubby cheeks. So cute when a baby, but now that she was grown, who wanted to be fat? Fat wasn't pretty. Just a couple more pounds. Then she'd be able to wear pretty clothes again. Now hers were big, dark and volumous, meant to hide the bulges of her figure.   
_ What a freak. What's she doing over there, anyway?_   
She smoothed thin hands over her hair, shade that wasn't red or orange, but dully both. To her eyes, lank and unappealing, flat, bangless and hanging limply around her shoulders. Pale blue eyes scanned the way her face was round and plain. Broad cheeked and with a forehead that was too high, only partially hidden by some of the nasty, off color hair. A little nose, too sharp for her big face.   
_Ha ha. Don't you know? She's trying to be a psychic again._   
"Stop laughing at me," the girl mumbled to herself as she pressed the palm of her hand against the flat mirror. The surface of the mirror was warm to the touch, evidence of the humidity in the bathroom.   
_ Yeah. What a weirdo. You know, she's always trying to be everyone's friend. But the thing is, who'd want to be hers, hahaha?_   
"Stop it..." the voice was pleading, almost plaintive, begging for silence in her mind. Her fingers grew into a fist, tight muscles beginning to cramp at the tension. Her throat cramped, and she felt hot tears burn her eyes.   
_ Hahaha! Look! She's seen us!_   
_ Maybe we shouldn't stare._   
_ Are you kidding? Stare right back at her. She has no right to look at us like that._   
  
Darkness hovered at the edges of her vision, and she began to sink into the silence around her, devoured by the thoughts in her head. "Stop it!" The fist released it tension, slamming into the surface of the glass under it, sending the mirror into a cascade of falling crystal shards. Slivers cut into the thin skin on her knuckles, and she felt the pain of it cut into her consciousness.   
On her knees, she sat among the broken glass, and the tiny fragmented mirrors showed her all angles of her face and body. There was one very large shard, a sharp shard, bigger than her hand. With slightly bloody fingers, she picked it up, looking at the distant blueness of her eyes. It was the only thing she thought pretty about herself, really. So faraway, like the sky. Far away from all the troubles. Far away from the ugliness and the laughing. A little more weight, and maybe then she'd see the prettiness again. Sometimes, she dreamed of going up, up into the clouds, flying away, faraway, far, faraway....   
The mirror was laying against her palm, and she could see the blue and purple lace of the veins in her wrist. Blood in them, just below the surface. If it was cut, it would bleed. The jagged edges of the broken glass were sharp as a knife. And they were dark in the light of the bathroom.   
Pinpricks of distant light in the polished surface of the glass, watching her with golden interest. Darkness against the blood under her skin.   
_Wouldn't you rather make them suffer as you have suffered?_   
And the nightmare consumed her.   
  
  
  


********************

Ah, end chapter one. I started things out with a little bit of fun...just the idea of throwing Kami a birthday party was too funny to resist. And to let you catch up with what's going on since the end of 'Weaver of Dreams.'   
Also, Kami is a Taurus. I am adamant about this. (In that stubborn way we Taureans have....) Why? Well, none of the senshi are. Not even one of the Starlights. (I have no clue what Princess Kakyuu is, though.) Which upsets me. Every other astrological sign gets represeted by a senshi but Taurus! sighs> And it also fits well into her being Hotaru's 'sister.' Capricorn, (Hotaru) is one of the zodiacs' Earth signs, as is Taurus. So it works....^^; The only thing is, I have to play around with the seasons a bit...in the manga, the SS arc takes place over the course of the summer. (They incessantly refer to it being very hot.) I'm aware I'm changing the seasons. It's a fanfic, what can I say? I hope this doesn't bother you too much. I try to be accurate, but...well...I can take liberites with the time of year, can't I?   
And at the end of this chapter, you met a girl currently without a name. You'll meet her more in the next chapter, and the story will truly begin. That was more of an introduction, and the party a bit of fun. And yes, if you're wondering, the currently nameless character is bulimic. Chapter one starts out very light, but things get darker quickly from here.   
The italicized words were memories she was having, and psychic thought. The majority of italics will be Kami's thoughts, but there will be some psychic speaking though the fic. It should be fairly self explainatory as you reach the sections it's in.   
And as a final note, I always listen to music as I write, so particular albums become the 'soundtracks' for the fic I'm writing. For "_Golden Rule_" the soundtracks would be '_Karma_' by Delerium, and '_Toward the Within_' by Dead Can Dance. (Arigatou, Melete-chan, for introducing me to their music....^_~) If you happen to have either of these cd's, pop them in and listen. ^_~   
So, stay tuned...er, well, since this isn't a television...lol, keep checking...for the next chapters.   
Ja ne til then, minna-sama!   
-Queen 


	4. Chapter 2- May Break Bones

GoldenRuleChapter2.html

The GoLden Rule__

_'An Eye For An Eye, A Tooth For A Tooth.'_   
_-Draconian Law_ __

  
__

Chapter 2: May Break Bones   
  


The sound of laughter and shouts filled the empty schoolyard as students released streamed across it. A fresh scent hung in the air, damp evidence of the passing rain from the west. In the grey pavement, small, oblong puddles of water formed, reflective and mirrorlike in the sunlight from above. Occasionally, one of these puddles was shattered by a footstep running though it, off to another place, away from school. Voices carried up as someone broke out a ball, tossing it between friends.   
A girl walked here, silently. She wore her disguise carefully, you see, so that no one would see her. Her hair clung just so around her face, allowing her to peer owlishly ahead, and glance to the sides, yet veil her as much as possible from others. Over her school uniform, a baggy black sweatshirt-jacket, hanging around her voluminously, letting her hide in the comforting folds. It was a safety blanket, large enough for her to retreat in, disappear in. Her body was bent slightly, as though she were protecting something. Herself, you see. Enemies could be anywhere. She wrapped her arms carefully around her books, and a deck of cards atop them. These were precious things to her. Carefully guarded. Suspicion was in her stance and carriage, and worried wariness. This was her gauntlet. Terror. Every day, she ran this gauntlet, the steps between the doors of the school and the road outside it. If she got to the street, she was only a few steps from being home free. Knotted worry, nearing panic, in her stomach. Senses alerted to danger. Heart rate high. This wasn't a safe place. Her fists were tight, nails pressed into the flesh of her palms. Almost there. Almost there. People streaming past her, ignoring her. Just a few more steps, a few more, almost there. Oh no....   
A boy ran around her, stopping and grabbing her arm. She caught her breath fearfully as he used her to swing himself around, back, forth, like a basketball player trying to get around the owner of the ball. A human shield, blocking something else. Then a laugh as he released her with a shove, scurrying off as he shouted back to his friends. She staggered a step, feeling her socks get wet in a random puddle. A choking laugh, almost hysterical. False alarm. Keep going. Just a few more steps. Straightened herself out, took another step.   
Then the pain connected, and blackness spun into her vision as she felt herself collapse into the ground. A sharp crack as bones too close to the skin hit pavement. Water splashed up over her face, muddying it. Getting into her mouth, making her spit to clean it out. She heard small dull thuds as her books and cards went flying, and she saw them in a fluttering flown arc around where she landed, cheek against cement. Pain scraped her face, and soreness up and down her right side.   
Spitting again, she turned her head painfully, seeing a basketball lying an armslength away, in a pool of dirty rainwater. It rolled slightly, and was still. She made a choking sound, reaching up to her face to see if she had a nosebleed. Though there was a smear of blood, it was not streaming. Her shoulders heaved as she fought panic. Every day, something. Every day. Oh god, every fucking day....   
Laughter.   
She pulled herself up, seeing the array of paper and book and card around her, the images turned upward, dirtied and messy.   
Laughter.   
In pain and disbelief, she touched her face, wincing as she felt grains of rock from the cement buried there, mixed with dirt and blood from a scraping. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand, trying to clean herself up as much as she could in a moment. It was an involuntary response, the wiping. Who wouldn't? No tissue nearby.   
"Oh, ew, look! She's wiping snot all over herself!"   
"How disgusting!"   
Her eyes, sky blue, distant blue, grew hard as she turned to look at the voices. A handful of people, staring at her. Oh, stop staring, please stop staring...don't look at me, just leave me alone. She wasn't completely impervious to fury. The look was enough to cause one of the tall girls to say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Yume-chan. We were aiming for him," absently, she pointed at the boy behind her, who was laughing and looking slightly sheepish for the accident. To this, she swiveled between them, looking at the boy, then the girl.   
She tried to gather herself up. Stop making fun...they had to stop making fun....   
"You did that on purpose!" Yume accused, gathering herself inside her safe, warm jacket of black. "You hit me on purpose!" She felt a sickness rise up at the back of her throat, acidic and hot. It made her choke, and the words cut hoarsely, as though a curse.   
"I just said," the girl declared loudly, "that I was sorry, okay? I was aiming for him. What do you want?" With that, she flipped a lock of thin, dark blonde hair over a shoulder. It swung, laying perfectly. To her mind, at least.   
Yume perversely tried again, desperately. "It doesn't take that long to throw a ball, Kutsu! He wasn't even near me anymore!"   
Her opponent's face drew tight, purpling. Anyone who didn't worship her would have noticed the little vein bulging in her neck. "So then what? Are you accusing me of lying? How dare you accuse me of lying! Stupid cow!" The girl grew tired of the argument and tried to put it to an end, curling her lip up in distaste, or disgust. "Why do I even try? You're not even worth the effort!" Kutsu sniffed, trying to look cute as she did so, trying not to sneer. Sneering was for the villain, and Kutsu could never do anything wrong, oh no, not Kutsu.   
She flipped her hair, the other shoulder this time, and turned around in a huff, motioning to her friends. Let's get away from here, she says. This isn't fun anymore. Let's go.   
Until she let out a shriek of absolute rage. Something flew past her arm. Something big and round and orange. A basketball, thrown from the fingers of the girl on the ground. Yume, a look of pure astonishment on her face. Disbelief, you see, that she could launch a ball that hard, from that distance, on the ground. Yume wasn't that strong. Oh no, not Yume, the stupid cow. She wasn't worth anything at all, how could she?   
"You got my shirt dirty!" Batting wildly at her arm, she tried to slap off the mud and dirty water that clung there. Several girls huddled around the shrieking figure, helping her to slap at it, as though this would solve the problem, if they just beat at it long enough. Kutsu seemed to realize this, then broke free of the huddle of girls around her, pointing at Yume, a hand still hanging in the air, in the silence filled with muted stares. "You got my uniform dirty!"   
It wasn't just a statement, it was a curse.   
Yume was already regretting it. She knew what this meant. If things had been bad before, they would be even worse now. Stupid, stupid...stupid cow, just like Kutsu said. If she was smart she wouldn't have to deal with this. No, if she were smart and pretty- like Kutsu- then she wouldn't have to run the gauntlet. Wouldn't have to fear this everyday. Wouldn't have been dumb enough to try to retaliate. No, if she were like Kutsu, then she'd have friends shrieking injustice with her, helping her up, offering a handkerchief to wipe the dirt away. That pointed finger was the way to a curse, a nightmare that Yume was going to have to experience. She didn't know how it could get worse, but it could. Kutsu was very good at discovering what humiliated Yume. Why? Whywhywhyohwhy?   
"I'm going to have to buy a new shirt!"   
"We'll help you pick something out," one of her friends said, shooting a dirty look at Yume. "Come on."   
There were calls as the friend ushered the others away, taking charge as there were exclamations of protest against Yume, awful Yume, stupid bitch Yume, still sitting on the ground covered in mud and dirt and blood.   
Yume sat and stared down at the spreading of books and cards at her feet. Pretty cards, from an antique shop downtown. Images of men and women in bright clothing, some smiling, some frowning, some pained. Wands and cups and swords and spears, up and down, straight and reversed. She wouldn't cry. No, that would be for home. Home where she could lock herself in her room, smother her sobs with a pillow. And eat. Eat the potato chips she smuggled into her room. And maybe the candy bar. Yeah, the carmel one. Those were comforting. Yes. Nice, safe home. Home with the bathroom, and the shattered mirror.   
"Gomen nasai," came a voice softly. A pale hand appeared in her vision, the veil of hair not shutting it out. "I saw what they did...gomen...I wish I had come faster...I'm so slow at running. Gomen nasai," the voice apologized again, and Yume looked up to see a worried face. Her eyes widened at that face, so worried and angry, violet eyes sending dark looks at the backs of the retreating crowd around Kutsu. "I'm not so strong. My sister tells me she isn't either. Here," the strange young woman offered, fishing around in a small purse, drawing out kleenexes from the pocket. "Blow your nose. Not too hard, it will open it again.... It isn't good to let the blood flow like that. Pinch, at the bridge," the stranger urged, motioning to her own.   
Yume obeyed, not sure what else to do. Someone helping her? This person wasn't a teacher. She was scooping up the books, a look of shock on her face. "Such disrespect to books!" was muttered darkly, as she delicately picked up the volumes of math and science. "And so well printed too. Such terrible people, ne? Gomen ne, gomen..." She stacked the books before Yume, then began to gather up the cards. After a moment, she selected a card of a woman on a chair, wearing a cloak of starlight. A crescent sat on her brow, and her eyes were distant and knowing. Those eyes blinked as she looked at the detailing, the once vibrant colors faded with age. "So beautiful. What are these?" she asked as she gathered up another, a peculiar image of a jester in motley, hanging upside down by a foot off a wooden cross.   
"Tarot cards," Yume replied, puzzled, both at the question at the woman's behavior. Sensing that her nose was well enough stopped, she released it, and began to hurriedly collect the cards as well, hastily snatching them from the hands across from her. "Arigatou."   
"You're welcome," was the reply, and Yume nearly leapt away in surprise as she felt a hand at her elbow, helping her up. Gathering herself into herself again, Yume tried to examine the stranger, her surroundings, and control her things again. The people had faded out, and the sounds of teenage life were retreating to football fields and clubs. Her deck was in disarray, but then, so was she. And the young woman across from her was composed, face serenely worried as she waited for Yume to give her some signal that she was okay. Oh, if she could be that pretty. With such a pretty small face, and long flowing hair and worried eyes such an unusual color. And such a look of simple elegance. Almost from another time. Embarrassed and afraid she was staring, Yume stuttered, "Arigatou...gomen nasai."   
"Hai," came a nervous laugh. "Are you sure you're all right? You don't need to see a healer, do you? A..." there was a pause, and her face drew tight as though trying to think of something. After a moment, it lit, and she exclaimed, "doctor! Ne?"   
"No...I'm okay...."   
A look of relief passed like a ray of light over her face. "Ah. Okay is good. I am..." she paused, then beamed beatifically, "Tomoe Kami. It is a pleasure to meet you." She bowed, deeply and formally, sending Yume into complete confusion. A pleasure to meet her? Why a pleasure to meet her? But the kindness did not go unpassed on Yume, who shyly bowed back, saying,   
"Fukushu Yume."   
Kami's face clouded briefly, uncertainly as she heard the name. But after a moment, Kami dismissed it with a shake of her head. This Yume person was very frightened. Fear radiated from her clearly, and Kami could almost see it visibly, like an aura. She drew away and into herself, retreating.   
"I've got to go," Yume said after a moment of growing discomfort. She was shifting from foot to foot, trying to steady herself.   
"Are you sure you're all right? You-"   
"I'm fine. I've got to go. It was nice to meet you, Kami-san." And Yume brushed around and by Kami, almost running for the street, head down and clutching her books desperately.   
"Matte..." Kami began, nearly taking a step forward towards the girl's retreating back. Then she paused, hand falling down to her side. She was gone, sprinting away from the destination Kami had been searching for all day. Biting her lip, she was indecisive, wanting to speak to Yume further. Something was certainly not right about the girl.   
_ So much pain surrounds her. Those girls. I wish I knew what they said. A second thought, maybe I do not. Cruelty on such a subtle level. Hatred for what? People fear what they do not understand. And it is easier to hate than to love, I suppose._   
"Kami-chan?" A familiar voice.   
"What are you doing here?" Another familiar voice.   
Kami turned and saw Ami and Minako approaching, both with jaws down. "Ah! Kanashimi-chan! Minako-chan!" Kami turned with a smile, recovering from her reverie on Yume and her problems. "I came to visit you!"   
There were blinks from Ami and Minako, staring at Kami. Finally, Ami asked, "Kami-chan, how did you get here? Did Setsuna-san bring you?"   
"Iie, she's up at the observatory, working. I walked."   
There were stares. "You walked from home? To here? Kami, when did you leave?"   
She thought about that for a second. "Ah, well, the little hand was on the ten, and the long one was between the six and the seven. So..." she frowned as she calculated, thinking though. These new hour systems were strange to her still. But she was getting used to it. "ten thirty-two," she concluded with a firm nod. "Hai. Ten thirty-two. Nan desu ka?"   
"Kami-chan, that's several kilometers to walk through all of Juuban. How did you find our school?"   
Kami's face fell a bit at their disbelieving behavior. "You are not happy to see me then? Was this a bad time? I went to Hotaru-chan's school yesterday, and I wanted to see where everyone else went...is Usagi-sama not with you? Or Mako-chan or Rei-chan?"   
"Well," Minako managed, "Rei goes to TA Private Girls School, not here...Mako-chan's got cooking club, and Usagi-chan had to make up a test." Minako grinned, rummaging briefly though her bag and producing a test paper with a red 84% on it, proof that she had better than passed this one. "Ami-chan and I are stuck without clubs today...Coach is sick and volleyball practice got canceled."   
"And they've been installing new computers in the lab all day today," Ami sighed wistfully. "They'll be nice when they're in, but I don't see why they had to close the lab all day. I couldn't study at lunchtime."   
Minako gave Ami an odd look, shaking her head and leaning in and whispering to Kami, "She needs to get out more. Studying at lunch is bad for health." Minako put a hand to her heart dramatically, as though in pain.   
"Truly?" Kami asked, a little surprised. _You would think studying should help a person....Ah well. Then perhaps it is bad that I ask to see their school today._ "That's too bad. I was hoping you could help me then."   
"Sure," Minako offered, shoving her test paper back into the bag and falling into step with Kami, who had turned and begun to walk out. Ami hurried to keep up, the three walking in a line, Kami in the center. "With what?"   
"Michiru-chan says that I have to get more clothes, because hers do not fit me as well as they should. Setsuna-san has made me some of my new clothes," she ran a hand meaningfully over her long denim skirt, which brushed the tops of low boots. Then she smiled and touched the necklace Mamoru had given her a couple days ago. The silver stood out cleanly against the black material of her shirt, gleaming white. "We went shoe shopping first, since my feet are smaller than theirs," she blushed slightly pink, "except for Hotaru-chan, who is still growing. And then there didn't seem to be time. I thought perhaps we could go to a store. Michiru-chan told me about a thing called a...mall? Hai, mall. And that they sell fabrics there already made into clothes."   
"Shopping spree!" Minako shouted, linking an arm though Kami's, dragging her forward more rapidly than Kami could walk. "And we can get your ears pierced, too!" She lowered her voice conspiratorially, adding, "It's not right that a senshi not have distinctive earrings. It's part of the rules, I swear."   
"Hai," Kami laughed, getting caught up in Minako's enthusiasm. "Kanashimi-chan, I also want to see a book-selling place. Do you know a good one?"   
"Of course," Ami smiled, hurrying to keep up with Minako's fast pace. Anything that headed towards the mall or the arcade was a fast walk for the Pretty Soldier of Love. "Have you begun to read '_Alice In Wonderland,_' then?"   
"Hai," Kami nodded seriously. "She fell down the great rabbit hole, and met the maddened people. But it is very slow for me to read it sometimes. Hotaru-chan and Setsuna-san help me, but the motionless picture story of the Magical Knights is also helping. I can see what they're doing too, and that sometimes helps."   
Ami stared, but Minako laughed, shaking a finger at Ami. "See? Manga can be educational, too!"   
"But it's not classical literature, Minako-chan."   
"Ah, but Kanashimi-chan, such stories use many elements in them. I have also been reading Setsuna's gift, and it says that long ago, people used pictures called," she carefully pronounced the words, "cu-ne-i-form and hi-ero-glyph-ics, to tell stories. It was their original language, and even Chinese and kanji are based on highly stylized images. A story told by pictures is an ancient form of art. I should very much like to see more of the story of the girl Knights in Cephiro."   
"Hah! Another otaku is born!" Minako crowed cheerfully, and the three girls headed down the street, towards the Juuban shopping district.   


Into a quiet house slipped Fukushu Yume. She peered around the doorframe, ears pricked up to hear any sounds. Mother would be home this time of day, back from the day in the busy office. Silently, Yume pushed the door to a close, then locked it behind her, letting out a quiet sigh of relief. Home. Home where she could find some peace and quiet. Let Mother be a bit late today. Get inside, have those chips and that candy bar. Oh yes, that would be good. And change clothes. Shed the hated school uniform.   
She looked around the foyer, peering into the den. Empty...so far, so good. Just a few steps to the stairs, then her room. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror of the hall tree, and felt herself pale. The blood from her cheek had dried to a crisp brown, and a bruise was swelling up underneath, turning her to a shade of sickly purple. She touched the rough spots with her fingertips, feeling the roughness of scraped skin.   
"Yume!"   
She whirled away from the mirror, seeing her mother standing in the shadowed archway to the kitchen. Perfect Mother, standing there in a tank top and shorts, her usual workout outfit. Blonde hair up in a ponytail, still not sweaty from aerobics. And her perfect face was drawn up in concern and surprise, mouth open as she gasped, "What in the world happened? Are you all right?"   
Mother crossed the space between them, leaning down to touch her daughter's face. Yume pulled away, stepping backward and clutching her books and cards tightly to her chest. "Gomen ne, Mother."   
"Yume, what on Earth...?"   
Can't tell Mother, oh no, can't tell Mother. Not perfect Mother. Then she'd have to worry about Yume. Hurricane Mother, Perfect Model Mother, storming the school, demanding to know what terrible person or persons were harming her child. Her precious, darling little girl. Yume knew what that would result in. Mother, in her best Donna Karan Power Suit, briefcase in hand, and Father's lawyers in tow. Mother with her hair up, feet in high heels, blasting into the Principal's Office, screaming injustice, screaming can't teachers do anything? What kind of school was this? What has the educational system come to? And everyone would know, and Kutsu would know, pretty perfect Kutsu, who would still see Yume during the day.   
"Gomen ne, Mother," Yume kept her eyes down, away, hoping Mother would interpret this as embarrassment. "Gomen. I was playing catch with some friends, and I was clumsy. I missed, and...gomen ne, I'm afraid I'm not so coordinated."   
The perfectly made up face of Mother relaxed from concern. Then it deepened into a mild anger, laced with annoyance. "Your Father has invited two very important clients over for dinner this evening. They're preparing the new Summer Catalog, and I'm having food catered in." Mother's stance grew formidable as she placed hands on hips, and her brows drew into a graceful frown. "I was supposed to present a young, elegant daughter. You know how important it is for us to keep up appearances, Yume-chan. Go upstairs and clean yourself up. And get ready for tonight. They'll be here at seven. Wear the dress I've laid out for you on your bed."   
"Hai, Mother."   
She felt her mother's eyes on her back as she ascended the stairs, as quickly and quietly as she could. Yume tried to be silent on the steps, but the house was aging, and the floorboards did not cooperate with her attempts at quiet. Slipping into her room, she heard a light pounding from below, music cranked up as her mother began her daily workout. Keep those small waists, firm thighs. Buns of steel! Destroy those flabby arms! Perfection is all in the eye of the public, and Mother and Father knew exactly what to show.   
"Oh yes, must keep up appearances. It just wouldn't do to show them how ugly your dear daughter is, would it? No, not at all." Yume closed the door to her room, and looked at the dress on her bed. It was a shade of pale green, a perfect offset to her hair color. Loose and flowing from an Empire waistline. One of the new fashions, and Yume would be presenting it on the live mannequin of herself. Strappy golden sandals sat at the foot of her bed, and she looked at them, kicking them over with a toe.   
Her room was dull with light, the yellows reflecting the browns of her furniture, not quite complimenting the falsely cheery pale pink of her bedspread. Fluffy white pillows declared it a welcome spot. Yume dumped her dirty books on the clean white pillows, looking at the dirty spots circle around the clean white. She took perverse pleasure in seeing the whiteness turn dingy. "I never liked those pillows anyway," she told herself with satisfaction, picking up the dress with a hand. She wrinkled her nose, tossing it back to the bed. She shrugged out of her comfortable jacket, pulled off her shirt, kicked off her shoes and wriggled out of her skirt. Bones poked dangerously close to the surface of her skin, and she picked up the green dress again, holding it up to her, standing before the mirror on her desk, strewn with papers and pencils and incomplete drawings. She pulled the dress down over her head, smoothing the folds out over her angular body. It covered her thinly, clinging to her hips and small breasts, showing the first bones of her ribcage. "Ah, I'm finally losing some weight," she smiled, then bent over and pulled open a drawer, fishing around for the candy bar at the back of it. She peeled back the wrapper, biting into it and staring at herself in the reflective glass. She sighed, and slipped on her yellow shoes, tottering slightly as she returned to the mirror. Blood and dirt still clotted her face, and now a slight smudge of chocolate smeared her chin. She grinned, candy still in her mouth.   
_ You hate them, don't you?_   
She nodded at the mirror, polishing off her candy bar. She tossed the wrapper and foil into her wastepaper basket, wiping her hands off on her knees. "They hate me."   
_And look what they did to you. Look how much uglier you are now._   
Yume nodded again, tilting her head at the reflection. The room there seemed so much darker than in hers, the muted lights that filtered though her curtains gone, as though it were night already.   
She turned away, not wanting to think about parading as the Perfect Daughter again tonight. Screw Father's clients. She wanted to stay in her room and draw and sleep. On the bed, Yume picked up her deck of cards, running loving hands over the images on them, smiling at the familiar faces of the deck. The Jester, the Empress, the Hanged Man, the Queen of Swords, the Star, the Moon, the Devil. They were wrought so prettily, though faded with age.   
_ Look how they ruined your cards._   
Yume's dirty face drew up into a grimace as she ran across the card of the High Priestess, a dark smudge of filth across her face. The card was in reverse, and Yume turned it towards her, looking at how the folds fell around the woman's body. She wished she had the talent of this artist. How carefully rendered was the cloak of starlight, how delicate the crescent on her brow.   
Flip, flip.   
She turned the cards over in her hands, kneeling on the floor before her desk. Flip flip, went the cards, forming the familiar Celtic Cross of divination. Flip, flip.   
One beside each other, one on top the other, reverse, straight, dirty, clean. Flip, flip. Flipflipflip.   
_ Wouldn't you like to make them stop?_   
"Oh yes, I would," Yume replied to the voice in her mind. It wasn't her voice, and it never ordered her to do anything. She wasn't sure who it was, but sometimes she thought she could see the woman's shadow if she turned quickly enough. She shuffled the cards, then, flip, flip, flipflip. The voice was so kind to her, talking quietly about things Yume didn't know. A castle on the moon, and an evil Queen who had lived there. Flip, flipflip. Flip.   
She stopped, looking at her spread of cards on the carpet. "Oh, look," she told the woman with her, the invisible shadow woman. "Did I tell you about how to read the Tarot spread?"   
_No. Tell me._   
Yume smiled, encouraged that the woman would listen. "You see, the cards themselves are very important. But many people make fun of them, because they were made by other people. They say, 'Well, when do they put the magic in, Yume?' This is silly. The magic is in the person reading the cards, not the paper or the ink used the print them. It takes a very strong person to use the magic fully. And you can't just look at one card or another. You have to look at the whole spread to see the whole picture. Otherwise, all you have are fragments that don't make sense."   
_Ah, I see. So then the power is within you._   
"Oh, I'm not that strong," Yume admitted, embarrassed.   
_Oh, but you are! Your dreams are very powerful._   
"If my dreams were powerful, then I wouldn't..." her voice trailed off weakly as she touched the mess of her face. "Ah, baka me. I need to wash my face...I'm such a mess...this is so silly." Yume sighed.   
_ No!_   
Yume turned sharply to the mirror, eyes wide to see the shadowy form almost solid. Darkness flowed around the edges of the mirror, absorbing the brightness within Yume's room.   
_ You and I are alike. My power is your power. It is within you, Yume-chan. Use it._   
She felt a brutal blow against her face. Spitting again, she turned her head painfully, seeing a basketball lying an armslength away, in a pool of dirty rainwater. It rolled slightly, and was still. She made a choking sound, reaching up to her face to see if she had a nosebleed. Though there was a smear of blood, it was not streaming. Her shoulders heaved as she fought panic. Every day, something. Every day. Oh god, every fucking day....   
Laughter.   
She pulled herself up, seeing the array of paper and book and card around her, the images turned upward, dirtied and messy.   
Laughter.   
"Stop it!" Yume pleaded, squeezing her eyes shut, hands over her ears, voice a shouted whisper, reliving the afternoon.   
What do your cards say, Yume-chan?   
"They have to stop making fun..." Yume protested weakly. In pain and disbelief, she touched her face, wincing as she felt grains of rock from the cement buried there, mixed with dirt and blood from a scraping. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand, trying to clean herself up as much as she could in a moment. It was an involuntary response, the wiping. Who wouldn't? No tissue nearby.   
"Oh, ew, look! She's wiping snot all over herself!"   
"How disgusting!" 

_ What do your cards say, Yume-chan?_

She looked down at the cards with eyes the color of the empty sky, the familiar faces turned up to hers. "Oh, that's easy. They say I am about to go though a change, and that I should be careful."   
_Pick up your cards, Yume-chan._   
She picked up her cards, placing them in her hands gently, then shuffled them carefully, flip, flipflip.   
_The power is within the person using them, not the cards themselves. The ability to use them is my gift to you, Yume-chan. Use them, and seal this bargain, Yume-chan. Use them!_   
If things had been bad before, they would be even worse now. Stupid, stupid...stupid cow, just like Kutsu said. If she was smart she wouldn't have to deal with this. No, if she were smart and pretty- like Kutsu- then she wouldn't have to run the gauntlet. Wouldn't have to fear this everyday. Wouldn't have been dumb enough to try to retaliate. No, if she were like Kutsu, then she'd have friends shrieking injustice with her, helping her up, offering a handkerchief to wipe the dirt away. That pointed finger was the way to a curse, a nightmare that Yume was going to have to experience. She didn't know how it could get worse, but it could. Kutsu was very good at discovering what humiliated Yume. Why? Whywhywhyohwhy?   
"Oh, it doesn't have to be that way anymore then, does it? Ah, well, in that case, I'll make them stop. I'll make all of them stop. All over, they'll stop. I'll make them all stop."   
She flung the cards in a circle around her, and then was gone.   
  


"Kami-chan!" Minako laughed, holding up a baby-tee to the furiously blushing girl. "You can't think this is the old days anymore. Everybody wears stuff like this now!" Minako stepped back a bit, holding the 'Nippon cha-cha-cha' tee away from her, examining the back, then the front. "It's even promoting the volleyball team! You have to try it on!"   
_ I know that this is not like my original era. I know that people walk around in less clothes than then. I know that Kanashimi-chan and Minako-chan would not dress me in inappropriate clothing. I know this, and I understand this. But there is so little there! And it will be so tight!_   
"Minako-chan...." Kami tried to protest, and was very grateful when Ami interrupted, by saying,   
"Minako-chan, maybe this would be better. Kami-chan is more used to wearing dresses than tee-shirts. Here, Kami-chan, try this one on," she offered a dress on a hanger, a sundress of dark pink, bits of black and yellow mixed into the plaid cloth. With a little trepidation, Kami accepted the dress, trying to admire it for what it was, not what she had hoped it would be.   
_There is no back to it! It's all little laces, tied up! But...well, at least it is a dress...._   
"Okay," Kami agreed, holding it to her a bit. "I'll try this one on, then."   
Ami smiled, and Minako was nodding in agreement. "I like it too," Minako said, as though her opinion were the final word on the matter. The Soldier of Love had selected this store, an expensive one, mainly because they were having an early sale. Racks of clothing were marked ten, fifteen, twenty-five percent off, and there were discounts up to fifty on the tables of clothing that were stylishly positioned though the store. Music played over the radio, one of the programmed stations for trendy stores, modern music carefully selected so that it would be enjoyed by all. Other people drifted though the store, and the sounds of cashiers ringing up customers was heard over the words, mingling with the faint humming of people talking, others laughing, as Minako, Ami and Kami were.   
"So I go into one of these little rooms, and put this on, to see if it fits?"   
"Hai," Minako agreed, flopping herself down in a cushy armchair in the back area. "Ah, now this is first class, all the way," she snuggled in closer, and Ami sat herself down neatly on the second chair, pulling out a book. "And when you get it on, make sure you show us, first. We have to make sure it looks good on you," Minako finished with a wink.   
"But I thought Kanashimi-chan said it would already-"   
"Un! But you have to show it off!"   
"Oh...okay...." Kami trailed uncertainly, then retreated to a room, locking the door behind her. There was a rustling of clothes a moment later, and Minako turned to Ami.   
"She seems to be adapting pretty well, ne, Ami-chan?"   
"Considering what happened, hai. I'd still like to know how she got to Michiru-san's house afterward." They spoke in whispered, so that the nearby Kami would not hear the too well. "Just appearing like that is odd."   
Minako nodded thoughtfully, then they both turned and smiled as the door opened tentatively, and they saw Kami poke her head out, hair streaming down behind her. She blinked. "I can come out?"   
"Un!" Minako waved her over and stood. "Here, in front of the mirror, so you can see yourself on all sides." She swept a critical eye over Kami, who came to stand in judgment. "It'll do," Minako decided with a tone of finality.   
"I'm glad! I rather like the way the back laces up, even though there's not much there," she said, turning and examining her back. Kami used both hands to pull her hair over a shoulder, seeing the smooth curve of the dress. She laughed, "It will look better when I am not wearing socks!"   
"Definitely! We'll have to go shopping for sandals next!" Minako agreed with a laugh. "Kami, you'll have every man in Juuban after you. Fresh blood."   
_ Every man? Me? Oh dear. Doesn't she remember my age...? Who'd want me, other than old widowers? That doesn't sound like what she means...._   
"Minako-chan, that's very kind," Kami flushed, bunching up the hem of the skirt in her fists. "But I'm quite the old maid now...I doubt any men will be chasing after...." Kami trailed off, looking wide-eyed between them as Minako and Ami stared at her with an unbelievable amount of incredulity. "Nani?"   
"Kami-chan," Ami managed, "You're only twenty."   
_ And that's old....right...? Only twenty? Oh no, am I off again? "And that's old," Kami asked uncertainly, "isn't it...Kanashimi-chan?"_   
"This isn't the 11th century, Kami-chan," Minako informed her with a smile. "You just got about ten more years before you have to go into panic mode. Nowadays, twenty is the prime of your life. Lots of people don't even get married until they're in their mid-twenties, or even late twenties."   
_ Honto? They're kidding! "You're sure?"_   
Nods.   
"Oh." Kami thought about that for a second. Then her face lit up. "Then I can still get married! I thought I'd have to cut my hair and become a nun!"   
They stared a moment, then burst out into laughter, as Kami giggled quietly a bit at her own joke. _I hope they don't think I was serious about that last part. Well, sort of. If I hadn't fallen ill, I would have been eventually, after Papa died. And almost was, even after. How odd that would seem now, me in the ash colored robes. So bright the colors of this era! So...pink. Oh my. But it is pretty. I think I will like this place._

A shrill laugh from the store interrupted their own laughter in the dressing room in back, the sounds of some other shopping girls on their day out as well. The laugh was calculated, just loud enough to grab attention, but not high pitched enough to grate on the nerves.   
_ I know that laugh.... Cruel, in a nice, sweet way._   
Kami paused, turning, and Minako and Ami a moment later, seeing that the eldest of the three of them had suddenly gotten a foul look on her face, lips tight and thin.   
_That's that awful girl from their school. I should say something to her._   
"Kami-chan, what is it?" Ami asked as she saw Kami's face harden, violet-grey eyes locked on the three figures in the center of the store.   
"Those girls. They are from your school, and they are very cruel to their classmates. Such rudeness and disrespect should not be forgiven!" Kami began to walk forward, her intent quite clear. Minako, however, intervened before Kami could go over and make a scene.   
"Kami-chan, no, wait...don't, that's really not a good idea," she pulled Kami back into the relative safety of the dressing room area. The three way mirror reflected the outside, and there was another peal of laughing, this time with encouragement from one of the other friends. Ami ushered Kami in before her, and there was bewilderment on the eldest's face.   
"What is it? Why shouldn't I? What we fight for is love and justice, ne? I do not see how their treatment of that girl was either loving or just." Kami watched the mirror, the reflection of the girls beyond the clothes racks. "It isn't right, what they did."   
"Kami-san," Minako explained, a hint of warning in her voice, "those girls are seniors at our school." Minako sent her own look of distaste at them though the mirror, lips drawn thinly as she watched them leave a mess at one of the tables. "That's Utsukushia Kutsu, Chiisaino Yujin and Nikumu Kioku. You don't want to mess with them. They'll walk all over you, Kami-chan."   
"Walk on me?" Kami asked, face blank. "Ah, another idiom," she waved a hand, ushering it away. "Minako-chan-"   
"Kami-chan," Ami asked, positioning herself physically between Kami and the exit to the dressing rooms. The movement was as much psychological as physical, and Ami knew it. She looked her friend in the face, trying to get her to understand. "What did you see?"   
"They threw a large ball into a girl's face, then laughed at her as she tried to get up. And screamed at her when she fought back." _Such subtle cruelty!_   
"It will make it worse, Kami-chan, if you say anything to them," Ami advised firmly, and noticed that Minako had copied her stance, just before the door, preventing any rash action on Kami's part. "If you want to help the girl you saw, the best thing is not to act here and now. It will only upset them further, and make them retaliate against her. Onegai, Kami-chan?"   
_ Kanashimi-chan, how can you stand to see such things? Is this also what dragged you down? Pain from the world around you? If so, then what of the girl...Yume, hai, Yume...what of her? What will happen if she is unable to pull herself out of her nightmare? I have been lazy. I have a duty, even as they do, and I have been too caught up in this new life to pursue that duty. I have not even entered the World of Dreams since Usagi-sama's battle with her Fury. I must find this Fukushu Yume, and speak with her there. Kanashimi-chan and Minako-chan know how people behave in these times better than I. It is nonsensical to me. I will do what I can, from where I can. Tonight._   
"Very well," Kami allowed, fingers tightening on the fabric of the dress. "I will not defend her here." Kami turned and headed back into the dressing room, shutting the door behind her.   


Kutsu was laughing again.   
She'd gotten her new dress for a wonderful price, and, according to Yujin and Kioku, it looked great on her. Yujin was getting herself a scarf and earrings from the jewelry section, the expensive (but not quite real) gemstones glittering in prismatic slices of rainbow. Kioku was quiet, as usual, but idly looking around the store, absently examining her nails as the other two babbled about how hard it was to clean dirt stains out of school uniforms. The brunette sighed as the other two chattered pointlessly, and she began to inspect her surroundings with a bit more interest. There had to be a guy or two hanging around...maybe. Some unlucky male dragged to a sale with his sister. Yeah, right. It was Kioku who felt a faint stirring of air over her face, just enough to send a strand of hair into her eyes. So she turned and looked, and was startled. Not so much by the appearance of Yume, but of the appearance of Yume. Standing just within the glass doors of the shop. Kioku was not entirely heartless. Seeing her classmate standing there, in a dirty pale green dress, blood and dirt still clinging to her face, Kioku's mouth fell open in surprise, and she made a small gasping noise. "Yume!"   
The word exclaimed from her mouth was enough to turn her two friends' heads, making faces frown at the interruption. Kutsu's eyes narrowed slightly as she saw the other girl, standing in front of them, eyes lowered, head bowed, hands full of those ridiculous cards. Flip, flip, went the cards in Yume's hands. Flip, flipflipflip, as she turned the top one over and over again. "I can't believe this," Kutsu muttered. "She followed us! What does she think she's doing?" Leaving the table of brightly colored cloth, Kutsu picked up her bags and went to stand before Yume, who was clearly blocking her path.   
Flip, flip, flip.   
"Yume, what are you doing?" Kutsu sighed, as though having great patience with the girl. There were, after all, people around. It just wouldn't do for a nice, polite girl like Kutsu to be anything but kindly with the obviously disturbed Yume. "You're filthy."   
"Oh yes. Filthy on the outside," Yume agreed after a moment, still with her eyes on her cards. Flip, flip, flip. "Doesn't mean anything about inside." Flipflip. "Devil card," Yume said, holding up the one she was turning. She did not look at the confused faces of the three girls before her. "means ignorance. Foolishness. And you don't even know it. Struggles between Light and Dark, Good and Evil. You know, if you change...if you wake up, it can be banished. All the darkness will just float away." She set the card back into the pile, then shuffled the deck carefully, blending the elements, the powers, again. "I'd forgive you, you know."   
Kustu was confused. And when she was confused, she lashed out, uncertainly. She didn't like to not be in control. Control was everything to Kutsu. Yume was babbling, in her mind. Nonsensical nonsense. Tarot cards, what garbage. Yume, stupid Yume. What was wrong with her, stalking her like that, following them like that? Not even cleaning herself up! Idiot. "Get out of my way, Yume." Kutsu tried to move past the inflappable, eerie girl, but found that she could not move.   
"Why do you hate me so, Kutsu?"   
The words were so soft, the three girls barely heard them, and their eyes widened. Most of the store was oblivious to this little drama, too concerned with their own shopping. Those who did pay attention were avidly watching, trying, though, not to stare at the four who faced off. Two of the faces softened with pity, dull eyes shifting guiltily away from Yume's bloodied form. They were just following orders. What else were they to do? They were just...following orders.   
But one face grew hard and distant. Then, just as swiftly, careless. "I don't hate you, Yume. You're not worth the effort."   
Yume smiled, from where her head was lowered. Flip, went the cards. Flip, flip...flip. "They say; '_Do unto others as you would have them do unto you_.' It is a saying noted the world over for kindness and fairness. To be kind to a person, and receive kindness in return. Yet, at the same time, it is also an older law. '_An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth_.'" Yume looked up, and the distant blue of her eyes was that of a winter sky. "I believe, in accordance with these laws, I have this right." She flipped the new top card over. The winter in her eyes became a blizzard of ice, and her scream a howling wind. "_Major Arcana! Justice!_" 

  
  
It was a familiar sound, to two of the girls in the dressing room. The sound of screams, accompanied by the pitched crystalline shimmering of glass, breaking into pieces, shattering in slivered waterfalls to the brushed carpet floor. The screams were frightened ones, panicked. Kami was holding her new dress up to herself, receiving further reassurances to its rightness for her. Her head turned, along with that of the others, in silent wide-eyed horror. It was only a step to the doorway, Ami and Minako pausing cautiously around the frame, Kami leaning over their backs to see what they saw.   
Women, shoppers, were running away from the epicenter of the panic. The glass in the storefront was blasted out from within, racks scattered, some overturned as a shockwave burst out across the store from its source. A girl stood, in a stylish dress of pale green, one hand lifted tensely in the air before her, her fingers tightly together, hands and body shaking. Before her floated three girls, dangling lightly off the floor, nebulously rotating in senseless spirals. A ring of cards spun in a circle around them, a golden light emanating from them, encasing each of their victims within a golden pillar.   
Within the safety of the dressing room, the three senshi drew back in revulsion, Ami with her hands over her lips in horror, Minako paling. Kami merely stepping away. Pain was no stranger to her. "Henshin yo, minna," Minako managed, and they backed away, back into the confines of the dressing room, with the discarded clothing on the ground. Moments later, had anyone been nearby, they would have heard the words, "Venus Crystal Power! Make-up!"   
Then, "Mercury Crystal Power! Make-up!"   
A long pause as lights filled the room, and the echoes of the phrases died away. Then, at last, "Dreamweaver Crystal Power! Make-up!"   


"Not worth the effort? Not worth the effort? _Do you know how much pain you've caused me?!_" The trembling of her body grew more pronounced as fury built up within her, rage against her insignificance, face screwed up in fury. The same light that enveloped the three girls before her intensified with her emotions, and they flinched as though struck. "I'll show you my pain! Feel what you made me feel! Feel it!"   
Her arm moved back, then struck the air before her. Though it passed through nothing, into nothing, the three she held captive jerked as though slapped.   
"Feel it!"   
Again.   
"Feel it!"   
Again.   
"Feel it!"   
Her voice intensified to the breaking point. Again.   
"Feel it! Feel it! _Feel it!_"   
Silent screams pulled open their mouths, though only faint choking noises were issued. The one who floated in the lead gurgled, and there was the noise of crunching as her nose broke into blood, flowing freely down her face, her dress, her shopping bags, down to the floor in a bleak crimson river.   
"Stop right there!"   
Yume didn't care to stop. For the first time, she was fighting back, and god it felt good. Nobody was picking on her now. Nono, no one would pick on her ever again. No, never again. But the call was from two voices, in harmony of calm command. And so Yume paused to look up. Perhaps her eyes widened fractionally at the sight that met them. Two girls, in layered short skirts and long bows and high boots...in her mind, she recognized them, thought processes bringing the words, "Sailor Senshi," to her mind, as well as a mild feeling of surprise that they were there. Luck, she supposed. Dumb luck. There was no way they could have known what she planned. She also recognized what this would appear like to them. They wouldn't know she was only serving justice. No, of course not. They would attack her, and even as she thought this, they began to speak again.   
"Agent of Love and Beauty, I am the pretty sailor suited soldier, Sailor Venus!"   
"And the pretty sailor suited soldier of Wisdom and Knowledge, Sailor Mercury!"   
They stood on top of one of the clearance tables, disarrayed piles of sale clothing around their feet. But they had much practice with this, and they stood back to back, looking over their shoulders, arms hanging parallel to each other's in perfect unity. They paused for a moment before saying their final phrase of introduction, in wait for a third.   
But then, the silence hung too long.   
And they turned their heads to see where Dreamweaver was. And to their surprise, they found only Kami, standing at the side of one of the upright clothing racks, her face holding all the graceful composure of one who did not know what to do. It took Venus and Mercury a moment to assimilate this; Kami was not in her senshi form. Therefore, it was reasonable to believe that she could not henshin. So, they recovered as quickly as possible. "And on behalf of the planets Venus,"   
"And Mercury...."   
"We will punish you!" They finished together, then broke apart.   
"Venus," golden glitters formed around Venus's outstretched hand, gathering around her fingertips. Yume watched the motion with calm, though she motioned again to her floating cards. The three girls collapsed on the ground as the deck abandoned them, heaps of uniform and girl.   
As the soldier of Love lightly kissed her fingertips with a wink, the deck was back in Yume's hands, and with a rapid swirl of cards, they fluttered wildly around her. "...Love and Beauty Shock!"   
"Tower!" The cards gathered in a globe around Yume, and funneled around her hands, shooting out in a blossom around her. The golden heart of Venus's attack struck the shield, and spun as it struggled against it. But as it spun and resisted, the energy rebounded, bouncing back at the source. They saw it coming, within a fraction of a second, and still too close together, they attempted to leap apart. The light of the attack struck between them, at their feet, and the table erupted in a shower of golden glitter. Venus and Mercury tumbled in the air, slamming backward, hard. There was a scream as Venus hit an overturned clothing rack, the poles of it twisting upward as it was it was tossed over again. Mercury had no better luck, flung into a trendy mannequin in sportswear.   
"Kanashimi-chan!" The sight of seeing Mercury hit so hard was enough to force Kami to bolt from her sideline position, falling down next to Mercury. "Kanashimi...?" There was a groan from the water senshi, who began to pull herself upward, slowly.   
_ This girl...she is the one from the school. She...she hurt Venus-chan, and Kanashimi-chan!_ Kami's face faded from worry to anger, and she stood, stepping off to the side. _I cannot fight her in this state. I do not know from where she draws her power. If she uses it so publicly now, how is it that she did not use it then, at the school? Why wait? I will buy them time, if I can...I cannot henshin...gods, why can I not henshin? Later. Worry later. I am not so strong...gods protect me.... Protect Kanashimi-chan!_   
"Would you fight me, as well, Fukushu Yume?" Kami asked, stepping away from Mercury, who was pulling herself back to her feet. Kami did not break her gaze with Yume. Must keep her mind off the others.... They will be able to fight again in just a moment...I must buy them just a moment!   
Yume was staring at the young woman across from her, through the flitting images on the flying cards around her. This was the pretty woman at school who was angry on her behalf, with the pale violet eyes and tissue for her bloody nose. "I have no argument with you," Yume replied cautiously, then, at her final words, glanced at the broken figures at her feet. The look was pointed, clearly stating, 'My argument was with them.'   
"You are better than that," replied Kami bluntly, also referring to the three girls.   
"You know them," Yume responded, but this time her eyes flickered to Mercury, then Venus. Faintly, she smiled. "You know them."   
_ Shimatta. Ah, I sound like Haruka-chan. Baka._   
Kami had nothing to say, and so said nothing. Yume took this as the affirmative it was, and the cards coalesced around her. Kami saw movement on the peripherals of her vision, and saw Mercury stagger to her feet. A quick glance to the side revealed that Venus was also standing, and taking breath for another attack.   
Yume, though, was ready. "Major Arcana!" A card slipped itself out of the deck, the image of a hunched old man, and spun in a vertical spiral around itself, the leader in a new flurry of cards. "Hermit!"   
The deck folded in on itself, and in on Yume, the wind stirring her hair in a red halo, as she folded her arms over her chest and looked up at them though quiet, distant eyes. The cards circled slowly for a half breath, then seemed to whisk her away in a movement so swift, there was no time to blink.   
  
  
  


*******************   


Another chapter complete. Well, the plot thickens, ne? Yume has powers, and Kami can't henshin!   
Yume uses her Tarot cards as attacks...way back when I was thinking about further Kami stories, I had the idea for a villian who used Tarot cards as a weapon. I was originally considering combining ideas for '_Golden Rule'_ and '_Weaver of Dreams'_....but using the Tarot concept just didn't fit in '_Weaver_' the way it fits here. I found the information on the Tarot online, at _www.learntarot.com_. I've tried to make her use of the cards fit the 'attacks' they correspond to. Since the Tarot isn't exactly supposed to be a weapon in the first place, they can't be identical...and I'm no Tarot expert. So if there's a mistake...gomen nasai! I've tried to keep things accuate to what I've read about the cards.   
Also, if you didn't notice, Mercury and Venus are in Eternal level fukus. In the manga, the senshi all get the layered skirts with the bubble sleeves, not just Sailor Moon, though her skirt is triple layered, and the others only double. Personally, I like the Crystal Power level outfits best, but still...this takes place after SS, so they should be in Eternal fukus, like Sailor Moon, with the white boots. More standardized, I suppose. However, they still say 'Crystal Power! Make-up!' to henshin. Usagi uses, 'Silver Moon Crystal Power!' and Chibiusa 'Pink Moon Crystal Power!' to henshin at the beginning of the Stars arc of manga, and not the anime-form, 'Moon Eternal! Make-up!' (and we never get to know what Chibiusa would say....) Some small differences I thought I'd bring up. At the time of writing this, only one more volume of Stars manga is left to be printed. I can't wait to read it....^_^   
So, til next chapter.   
Ja ne!   
-Queen 


	5. Chapter 3- And Names Will Break Your Hea...

GoldenRuleChapter3.html

The GoLden Rule   
__

_Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall,_   
_Who is the Fairest_   
_Of Them All?_   
_-Snow White_   


  


Chapter 3: And Names Will Break Your Heart   
  


The home of the Outer Senshi at dinner was usually cheerful. The four- now five- members of the group would meet in the evening, gathering around a linen draped table, food set out. There would be talk- Hotaru's day at school, Michiru's new plans for a concert, something Kami learned that day, the progress on the car Haruka was trying to fix up. Setsuna would watch and listen and laugh quietly at them and with them, shaking her head as the conversations progressed. These were the sounds of the odd little family of senshi. Today, though, there was silence around the table. Haruka was quietly slurping her soba noodles, the faint sounds louder than they should have been, with the murmuring of Michiru in the kitchen, on the phone.   
Hotaru watched Kami with a sideways glance. The older girl was holding her chopsticks in hand, idly poking the plate of noodles and vegetables before her. Her face was pale as alabaster, and her eyes distant. Kami did not look up with the other three, when Michiru entered the room again, pulling out her chair and seating herself at the table.   
"What did Ami say?" Setsuna asked as the teal haired young woman settled herself. Michiru sighed softly, with a shake of her head. She had taken to wearing her hair back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck when she cooked, and now part of her hair had slipped out of its fastenings, just over her ear, where she had pressed the receiver of the phone. Absently, she tucked the loose strands away, and began.   
"The three girls are who Minako identified. Utsukushia Kutsu, Chiisaino Yujin and Nikumu Kioku," Michiru picked up a bowl of rice, and began to scoop some onto her plate as she spoke. "Two of them, the Kioku one and the Yujin one..." her lips drew thin as she set the bowl down again, "are in fair condition. They seem physically undamaged, however, their mental capacities show...alteration."   
"Alteration?" Haruka prompted, finishing her plate and setting her chopsticks down. From Haruka's point of view, she watched Michiru and the play of light from the chandelier above on her face. Had it been a different senshi, the patterns of light could be mistaken as tears on her cheeks. But the senshi of wind knew her partner better than that. "Michiru?"   
Michiru tentatively picked up her utensils, then set them down again, not touching her food. "They have experienced mental trauma to some degree. They have become excessively timid, and seem to be almost photophobic. They both refuse to eat. Physically, they seem fairly unaffected. A couple bruises, possibly from hard landings after what Kami told us, when they were being held in the air. Nothing serious. The doctors believe they will be able to get through to them eventually. The Kioku one speaks, though not the Yujin one."   
There was a pause that hung in the air. "And the other one?" Haruka asked, an eye going from Michiru to Kami, then back again. "The third girl?"   
"Utsukushia Kutsu sustained severe trauma to her head. She is immobilized and in critical condition."   
"And her mental capacities?" Setsuna prompted, thinking of the first two Michiru had explained. She was not surprised when Michiru responded by saying that it was unknown. Kutsu had not awakened since the arrival of the ambulance at the store.   
Mercury and Venus retreated quickly, with the disappearance of Yume and her cards. Kami, momentarily unsure what to do, remembered a thing Setsuna had told her. In this era, if someone is hurt, you call for doctors to come in vans- like cars- and they will take the hurt person to a hospital with all speed. Setsuna had failed to mention how to go about summoning one of these, since Haruka had interrupted them with a request for the television. So, Kami did the logical thing for a person from the eleventh century: she ran out of the store and began screaming for people to get help.   
There was already a ring of people in the distance, people afraid to come too close to the danger zone, but brave- or perhaps foolish- enough, to cling to the shadows of the street to see. Kami watched some of them whip out cell phones, and by the time she was back in the store, the scream of sirens were growing in the distance. Minako and Ami were returning from the changing rooms as she bent down over Kutsu, holding fingers to the pulse in her throat. The beat fluttered faintly there, and she heard Ami and Minako say the same for the other two.   
Ami had remained at the hospital, mainly because her mother was able to pull a few strings and get them information. Dr. Mizuno did not work in that wing of the building, but though colleagues she was able to keep her oddly curious daughter informed to the situation.   
"A new enemy?" Haruka asked into the silence. It was an obvious question, but someone had to ask it. The food still steamed slightly from the stove, and in the light, it curled lightly into the air, scenting it with good smells.   
"An enemy that attacks the minds of their enemies, but does not kill." Setsuna replied quietly, asking as much as stating the words. She made a quiet study of Haruka's features, slowly setting into hardness. She looked at Michiru, who was just catching Haruka's gaze, then Hotaru, who was vainly trying to catch Kami's. The last of them still hung her head in silence, dark hair cloaking her face from view. "A merciful enemy indeed."   
"Merciful?" Haruka snapped with a scowl. "How is being left a human vegetable merciful? Gods, look what that Yume girl did to them!"   
"It may be better to ask what she wants," Michiru counseled, lightly setting a hand atop Haruka's, which rested on the table in a fist. "That attack was specifically targeted at them, by the description. Yume knew them, and chose to attack them specifically. Kami, you said that you saw them hurt her...."   
Kami nodded her head once, then picked up her napkin and wiped her lips politely, standing and bowing slightly. "Gomen nasai, Michiru-chan. I am not so hungry tonight. Perhaps I will eat later, ne?"   
Four faces looked at Kami, each trying to be neutral or friendly, rather than pitying. All the senshi knew now, that their newest addition to the 'family' could not henshin. "Of course," Michiru responded. "We'll put your plate in the fridge for later, okay?"   
"Hai, arigatou." Kami turned and tucked her chair back in, and slipped out of the dining room on silent feet.   
  
The sun was setting outside, staining the sky in ruby and amethyst shades, the clouds playing like facets over the colored air. Streams of whiteness flowed though as delicately as a geisha's fan, held delicately before the sun's half closed eye. Kami passed though the stages of light and dark in the hallways, not turning on the lights as she went, partly from lack of familiarity with the custom, partly from desire to let her eyes rest from the light. She always enjoyed the dark, and the way the light could play against it in a palette of color. They say fireflies are the souls of the dead, floating in a sea of dusky light. In such an evening, Kami could believe this, looking out through the windows in her room to see the early fireflies waltzing below her in the gardens. Glowing divine.   
Her room was sparse yet, undecorated in the way a familiar and often used room would be. The carpet was a bit too clean and full, not worn down from constant trampling. The walls were bare, since the pictures Kami had selected with Michiru the other day had not yet been framed. There was furniture, simple and plain, of dark stained wood. A western-style bed was tucked cozily into a corner, rather than a futon, and a wide spread of evergreen and mauve lay across it, a pillow at the head, with a fuzzy, white stuffed rabbit in a pink dress atop it, smiling obliviously towards the ceiling. Kami leaned against the drapes, lacy white things, turning around and inspecting her room. Silently, she picked up her rabbit, hugging it lightly to her chest and enjoying the simple comfort of a stuffed animal.   
_ No argument, no demands. Simple comfort, offered by a fluffy inanimate object. Such a strange sensation, hugging Chibiusa-chan's gift. Ah, well._   
Kami looked at the mirror across from her. She had found it on one of their first excursions outside, in a store full of old things. An antique store, she had been told, where they sell things made long ago. It was a free-standing mirror, oval and tall as she, polished to a shine, backed with expensive teakwood. Delicate symbols had been carved into the wooden rim, and Kami had curiously run her fingers over the engraving, wondering what they meant. Seeing her interest in the piece, expense was never an object for the famed Kaioh Michiru, and the mirror was wrapped up and purchased on the spot, much to Haruka's groanings.   
_ I cannot henshin. I cannot henshin. Why? Why can I not fight with them now? I was able to, when Hotaru-chan and Kanashimi-chan came so far to find me. And all of that night, I walked in people's dreams, until I slept on my feet, and wished that I would wake up with the family of my sister. And I did. I did! I do not understand! They say, "Mercury Crystal Power! Venus Crystal Power!" and the power flows around them easily. Why not so with me? I said no phrase before...but without it, how am I to join them now? I am failing them. Baka, I am lazy. This could have been avoided, had I been able to step into Yume's mind before...._   
Kami set her stuffed rabbit back on the bed, and found herself running a hand over the volumes of '_Alice In Wonderland_' and '_A Brief History of the World,_' on her desk. Beside them sat the two candles from Rei, one pink, one lavender, their wicks black and the wax around them melted away in a pool, signs of previous use. Kami had kept the book of matches in her drawer, and she pulled them out, striking the head into flame and lighting the wicks. The slight smell of sulfur filled the room for a moment as she blew out the match, dropping it into the basket. She picked up the two candles, glad they were broad-based. She set them on top of her dresser, and the warm glow of golden light was magnified by the reflective surface of the mirror.   
_ This is more comfortable, to me. So many things light up here, and yet offer no warmth. Fire is so dangerous...before, people feared the earthquakes in Miyako...Iie, Kyoto, I must remember that....in Kyoto, because lamps would tilt and the shoji would catch afire. The blaze would spread from house to house in the streets, until all of the capital burned. Now, they worry that the houses will topple- and the great structures they build that touch the sky with sharp metal fingers._   
She moved around the room, opening drawers and drawing out a piece of wickerboard, finely woven, and the fine paper of these times. Stationery, Hotaru had told her, helping her pick out white paper with pretty little violets around the border. Michiru's gift was drawn out next, the brushes with bamboo handles and fine white hairs. A well of black ink. _No inkstone needed in this time, either...._   
Kami sighed and closed her eyes, standing with the smooth box of brushes in hand. Behind her, light pooled around her feet, dappled on the floor and her back by the branches and leaves of the tree in front of the window. Looking at herself in the mirror, Kami saw a girl out of place. She was alone, awkward still in her new clothes. Plain denim skirt to her ankles, plain black shirt with high collar. She still wished for her _Chrysanthemum Rain,_ the delicate clothes she stitched and wore so long ago. The layers, like the petals of a flower, falling over her porcelain hands. Those hands tightened on the glossy box, the stenciled cranes still flying.   
_ I miss that time...I miss home...._   
She bowed her head, and as she looked up again, a slight wink of light caught at her throat. She touched the necklace with her fingertips, the smooth silver of the dreamcatcher Mamoru had given her at her 'birthday' party. The webbing was still spun as finely as spider silk, the strands metal gossamer.   
Kami knelt down on the floor, gathering her tools around her. She unscrewed the lid of the inkwell, and removed the top of the box. Lightly she dipped the brush into the ink, and lightly she traced the first curve onto the paper, watching the lines she drew turn the paper wet black.   
_It was not so much home in the realm of death. There, things were as I wished. I was home there. This...this is not my home...not really...as much as I say so, as much as she says so, Hotaru-chan and I are not born of the same parents...sisters in spirit only. I miss Papa...._   
She saw a small droplet of rain fall onto her paper, wetting it. Another fell silently beside it. I am being so foolish...I can do nothing to my destiny. I cannot even help others with theirs. _I am so foolish...and now I cry for no reason...baka...._   
"You'll find the words."   
Kami glanced up from her letters, not hearing the door open to her room. Hotaru stood there, a hand resting lightly on the doorknob as she slipped inside, shutting the door behind her. She stood in the shadows, looking down at the kneeling Kami for a moment, then joining her, sitting in the opposite direction, kneeling as Kami, hands resting lightly on her knees. She set a small object down before her, then began,   
"It is different, for us all, Kami-chan," Hotaru told her, not looking. She looked out to the dimming sun, and the yellowed light falling through the window, the shadow traceries of the light in her lap. Her dark violet eyes were far away, and gentle, and her hair cut a sharp line over her shoulder. "The words will come. Your power comes from a different place. When you know where that is, you will know what to say."   
"My power should stem from Saturn, ne?" Kami wiped the tears off her cheeks, and picked up the brush again, drawing it lightly across the paper. "If we were to have been sisters...."   
"Biological or not, Kami-chan, we are if we think so. You are Tomoe Kami, and I am Tomoe Hotaru." Quietly, she sang the words, 

_"Kirei na kokoro ga watashi no o-uchi yo_   
_Yume miru dareka no kokoro no naka yo_   
_Kibou wo nakushita utsuro na kokoro de wa_   
_Watashi no sugata wa kiete shimau no___

_Dakara dakara douzo yume wo ne_   
_Kirei na yume wo mitsuzukete ite"_

Kami listened to her. "Hai, Hotaru-chan." _At times, I wonder how it is she is supposed to be the younger sister...._ After a moment, she laughed lightly at a thought. "Ah, Hotaru-chan, if this was before, I would be teaching you many things now. How to write letters beautifully, and I would be fitting you for the pretty layers of clothing. We would go to town, and buy damask and silk from China. Then come home and sew dresses and tell stories to pass time. I would read Murasaki to you, and teach you to blacken your teeth like a lady, and powder your face white. If sisters we would be, then I would show you these things, since Papa could not."   
Hotaru tilted her head to look at the fine line of Kami's chin, visible around the curve of her ebony hair, catching violet in the shifting royal light of the sunset. "What was your Mama like, Kami-chan?"   
Kami's brush hesitated a beat on the paper, the ink pooling ever so slightly around where it paused. She continued, arching the curve of the character lightly, then crossing it. "Mama smelled like wildflowers. Chrysanthemums and grass in the springtime. She would sing quietly to me, sometimes, when I was little and afraid of the thunderstorms."   
"My Mama would sing when it stormed too," Hotaru confided quietly, still gazing out the window. "She tried to protect me, when the fire blew though the lab. I heard Poppa calling out, and Kaori screaming."   
"But no matter how hard she fought...."   
"She wasn't fast enough...."   
"And the flames...."   
Silence.   
"Yours...."   
"And mine...."   
"Both..." they finished together, voices strained gentle whispers of sorrow.   
"Poppa was researching...the lab...."   
"The ground shook, and a lamp tipped over.... Papa was in Miyako.... Had to tell him...."   
"Tried to keep me alive for so long...."   
Silence.   
"Hotaru-chan?" Kami turned her head and set the brush down, resting it lightly across the top of the inkwell. "Daijobu ka?"   
"Hai..." Hotaru trailed, voice faint, eyes closed.   
"We are mirrors of each other, ne, Hotaru-chan?"   
"One sorrow reflects..."   
"The other's sorrow," Kami finished quietly, with her lips curved upward slightly. "People can endure much, when they are not so alone."   
"Misery loves company?"   
Kami blinked at the unfamiliar phrase, and nodded thoughtfully, quietly, brows drawn in thought. "There seem to be two ways to saying such idioms you have, ne? 'Misery loves company.' It sounds so sad. But still, is it not true? Better to be with others when miserable, because then perhaps they pull us out of that misery, ne?"   
Hotaru giggled a little, lightly. "You sound like Usagi when you talk like that."   
Kami laughed. The two sisters sat, their positions the same, kneeling beside each other, though in opposing directions.   
"Onee-san, I brought this up for you," Hotaru picked up the small package at her knees, and handed it to Kami. "For the picture album I gave you. They're from the party."   
Kami ran a finger under the envelope, the yellow paper proudly displaying the word 'Kodak' in blocky red letters on the front. Drawing them out, she saw the image of herself, with the cake before her. Her cheeks were puffed out with air, and the flames on the candles were tilted to the side as she blew. _How silly I look!_   
She turned to the next picture, and saw Michiru with her violin at her chin, and Haruka at the piano, playing a song. Then another of Michiru with her violin, and Rei with her mouth open and eyes closed, a hand in the air as she sang. Another picture, again with Rei, this time with Usagi, facing off with tongues out, Mamoru in the background, looking embarrassed. Another with Chibiusa and Hotaru, the latter laughing at the former's stuffed face. A simple picture of Kami and the Outers, a smiling Setsuna on her right, Hotaru in front of her, a laughing Michiru on her left with a stumbling Haruka, trying to squeeze in at the last minute. There was one of Kami and Ami next, standing in front of the bookcases, both slightly startled from their conversation. The next was another Kami and Ami, moments later, Ami giving a peace sign at Minako's prompting. Then a picture of Minako's thumb. Then a shot of Minako trying to figure out what she did wrong, and getting an accidental shot of her glaring face. Then a lopsided image of Makoto taking the camera away from Minako. Then a picture of Minako looking embarrassed. There were more pictures, one of Kami and Mamoru, trying to cut the cake again. One of Kami and Usagi. One of Kami and the Inners. One of Makoto laughing as Kami tried to eat her homemade taffy, with a moderate amount of success.   
"Welcome to the family," Kami murmured, echoing Usagi's words.   
"You are, you know," Hotaru told her, smiling faintly. "You are Tomoe Kami, my sister. You even have a birth certificate now to prove it."   
"Setsuna-san got the document she mentioned then?"   
Hotaru nodded, standing. "You're officially Tomoe Kami, eldest daughter of Tomoe Soichi. You went to Juuban High School, and graduated three years ago. All you need now is a driver's license."   
The idea of herself behind the wheel of one of those cars sent a shudder though Kami. "I think I'll leave the driving up to Haruka-chan."   
"She'll be glad to know you have such confidence in her driving abilities," Hotaru remarked dryly. "Good night, Onee-san," Hotaru said in farewell, closing the door quietly behind her.   
  


Not far from the Juuban shopping district rested the remains of a Circus that had passed by. When the Circus had left with mysterious speed, they left behind their ruins. The city had cleaned out most of the buildings and structures erected for the carnival, and swept out the remaining junk and garbage. But here and there, elements remained. A poster clinging stickily to a post, declaring the showtimes of the World Renowned Acrobatic Amazoness Quartet. Pins still stuck out of the concrete in a place or two, where ropes for tents had been removed, but the spikes forgotten. A deflated balloon floated in a pool of dirty rainwater, bits of moldy cotton candy clinging to it. If one imagined, popcorn could still be smelled faintly in the darker corners of the circus. People forget about such things, when they're gone. The brightness and the light of a carnival become a memory, nothing more.   
One structure had not been torn down. The Hall of Mirrors still stood, in slight dispute. The building itself had originally been converted; it belonged to city hall, not the vanished Circus. But it still donned a robe of mirrors, ungutted, and a broken electric sign over the door declared what it was. Within the full shade of evening, it cast a hulking shadow across the pavement, an empty shell of itself. But as it is with such things, appearances without do not reveal what lies within.   
In the center of the maze of mirrors, there was a room. It was circular, tall mirrors ringing it. Some were cracked, and refracted more images than originally intended. A small dais had been built against the far end of the room, and an overturned throne lay with its back pressed tightly against the reflective surface of the mirror behind it. There was little light here, and what there was came from a fluttering bare bulb high above. And, in the room's center, Fukushu Yume lay.   
Her face was clean now, the bruises sustained so few hours ago fading unnaturally into a shade of yellow. The dirt that clung to the vanishing scrapes was gone, and Yume's face was a mask of serenity, eyelids closed, lashes resting lightly against her cheeks as she breathed rhythmically. Her pale red hair lay in a careless aureole around her face, and her arms lay out to her sides. In each of her hands she clutched half the deck of cards, faced down.   
"Yume...wake up, Yume-chan."   
The words were soft and distant, echoing lightly.   
"Yume-chan...wake up.... Wake up, Yume-chan..."   
The words overlapped each other, layering, one atop another, repeating endlessly in whispers that dizzied the mind. "Wake up, wake up," the voice sang, "wake up, wake up, wake up and see your life. Wake up wake up wake up and look where you are!"   
And slowly, Yume obeyed, eyes fluttering slowly open, reluctantly listening. She did not move, but simply stared above her, watching the light gutter, light dark, light dark. Wake up, Yume, wake up, Yume-chan, wake up and look up!   
Where her eyes focused blearily, the air cleared away, and the light extinguished. Instead, a bubble of light formed, shifting in soapy shades of purple and blue and greeny gold. It distorted what lay beyond it, and she set her cards down, half a deck to either side of her. To touch the thing was tempting, and it was just within her reach. Lightly, she rested her hands on either side of the glassy bubble, and the patterns of swirling color altered, shifting around her light fingers. The world pulled away from her, and she floated in the darkness, encompassed by the shifting light of the orb in her hands. This same light reflected into her face, sending the features too bright, too sharp, the shadows of her features drawn too harshly, making her hawklike in the lighting.   
"This place is mine," the voice beyond her whispered, coaxing her too look deeper within the bubble. "Look...." The bubble popped, and Yume covered her eyes with her hands, eyes frantically trying to compensate for the glaring brightness. The world shifted in many colors around her, dark shades, as though blackness veiled some stream of beautifully colored light. Silhouettes danced in motion beyond the realm of her vision, and then crystallized. She looked in a mirror, her hands warmly touching the hands of the woman in the mirror. Yume drew back a step so that she may see this new reflection. Pale, flawlessly smooth skin. Long hands that tapered like willow wands. Black hair full of waves, falling to her feet, and pooling around her long skirts. The face still lay shadowed, but yellowy eyes reflected back at her, golden and catlike, with pupils slit vertically. "This place is yours, as well, Yume-chan," the silky woman smiled down at Yume, who stared, entranced. The woman was beautiful in her shadows, so beautiful that it bordered on ugliness. The contrast of pale skin to dark shadow around her cheeks and eyes was too sharp. The eyes, rather than exotic, bordered on freakish. But such an aura of calm command emanated from the woman within the mirror, these flaws flew by unnoticed.   
"Goddess of the Night...."   
"Goddess," she sang softly, "locked away, far away," the face looked away from Yume, looking behind her, and Yume turned to see what the woman saw, the forgotten memory of a small battle. Four young girls stood behind a queenly woman in white. One held a baby in her arms, cradling it as the royal mother stood forward, holding a scepter, the tip a golden crescent moon, a crystal shining in its center. Yume felt her lips open to scream, but no sound came. She had no time to react as the light from that shining stone blazed into her body. She felt herself growing cold and hard, lifting her hands and pressing them against the inside of a looking glass. Soundlessly, she screamed, pounding against the inside of her cell with her fists.   
The glass shattered, and Yume stood again in the Hall of Mirrors, clutching the Tarot cards to her chest, once more a single deck. "Those girls..." Little girls, miniatures of who they were now. But she recognized them. Who wouldn't? This was Tokyo, and snippets of footage of the legendary Sailor Senshi turned up on the evening news or in the paper every few weeks. And hadn't Yume just fought two of them earlier that day? The red bow was unmistakable, on the one who held the little baby in her arms. Agent of Love and Beauty, the pretty sailor suited soldier, Sailor Venus. Or so she introduced herself.   
"Hai," she heard, and shivered, turning to look at the mirror. Where the dais met the overturned throne, Yume saw movement, the face of the hideously beautiful woman. She stood within the mirror weakly, balancing herself on the reflection of the throne, pulling herself upright painfully, nobly. "It is the nature of the dark to complement the light. And they sealed me away, for a thousand years and more. Until she was reborn. And then I once again tried to claim my throne. But this time," the figure shuddered, looking at her hands. "this time only a ghost remains of the darkness."   
"Who are you?" Yume asked, not daring to look into those felineniod eyes.   
The woman in the shadows did not answer her, but continued, "I gave you power to avenge yourself on your enemies. So now I give you power to avenge me. This was our bargain, Yume-chan. Don't you remember, my dear Yume-chan...?"   
Yume pulled away from the darkness in the mirror, clutching her familiar cards tightly. Queen and Kings and Emperors and Empresses, Fools and Stars and Moons and Towers. The Major Arcana, the trumps. Yume was the fortune-teller in the World Famous Dead Moon Sideshow, a Circus freak who people liked to point at. Oh yes, people like to make fun of those who are not as we. Quasimodo and Frankenstein and Yume, stupid Yume, ugly Yume, with her silly Tarot cards.   
"Who are you?" This time, she was bold enough to meet those peculiar eyes.   
The smile was that of a cheshire cat, mad and sane at once. "I am merely the reflection of the mirror...." 

The evening lengthened quietly into night, and the patterns of light on the floor of Kami's room shifted as time passed by. The drapes were never closed, and starlight from the empty sky poured in clearly. The moon was waning, a silver crescent, light only clinging to the edge of the surface. As the evening wore on, Kami continued to practice, copying out her letters with painstaking care, her handwriting neat and precise, though flowing. The brush made soft scratching sounds against the smooth paper, the ink a stark black chiaroscuro against the white. Beyond the closed door, Kami could hear the sounds of the other senshi, moving about as they watched the evening news, got ready for bed. Water ran though the pipes as someone took a shower, and the sound of the tv died away as the clock wore on. There was a grandfather clock in the hallway, and it struck with hollow chimes, sending echoes through the quieting house. Kami was entranced by the words she copied, quietly losing herself in the letters. It was easy, to slip into a meditative state, lift the brush, set against the paper, move hand, up, down, across.   
_Waiting._   
She knelt on the floor, patiently waiting. The house grew still, and the street beyond. There were sounds of cars racing in the distance, scurrying to places far away. Distantly, Kami heard these things, but the paper and the black characters against it were all she paid attention to. The world was outside her, and not a thing of relevance.   
The clock struck again, ringing ten, eleven, twelve times. Moments passed, and a chill breeze flushed the room, stirring the completed sheets at her feet. The top one sailed off the pile, sighing as it skidded to a halt out of reach. Her brush did not falter, merely hesitating a moment, then continuing as though she were unobserved.   
_ So she has come. Ah. Remain silent._   
Within her looking glass, Yume watched the older girl, kneeling so quietly on the floor. She moved with grace, hand sweeping from inkwell to paper, hand moving in rhythm to her own motion. If one listened carefully, Kami could be heard to hum, 

_itsuka shiru toki ga kuru no? mune no itami o_   
_soshite ima yori yasashiku naru no ne_

Kami had borrowed one of Setsuna's cd's, and the words ran though her head incessantly. Quietly, she igored her audience, who, for the time being, seemed content to watch her work. The reflection of the room was also occupied by Kami, mirroring the living one's motions exactly, with precision. Yume circled the room, looking at the reflected candles, the reflected books, the imaginary Kami. She picked up one of the notes of paper, and frowned at it, unfamiliar with the peculiar dialect. Her brow arched. "This is Japanese?"   
"Hai," came the soft reply, without looking up. The brush curved as she drew it down, lengthening the stroke to finish the letter.   
"Don't want to talk? Don't want to ask me why I'm here?" Yume was puzzled by this, frowning down at the kneeling woman.   
There was a tapping sound as Kami removed excess ink from her brush. She brought the brush into contact with the paper again, lightly forming the final syllable. Then she read it aloud: 

_"The firefly but burns and makes no comment._   
_Silence sometimes tells of deeper thoughts."_

Yume looked down, thinking about the words. They echoed with familiarity in her mind. But she had reason to be here. She had her own agenda, and aiding the Lady of the Mirrors must be a part of it. Sailor Senshi, defenders of the world. Yume did not care. The world could be terrorized by a thousand troubles within, and still they battled with things without. Terrorists from the future, claiming to be rewriting history. Foolish Queens of the past who seek claim on the world. Invaders from other systems who seek the same. What would such people inherit? A mess of troubles, a world full of people who hate each other. Biting each other in the back. If no one else, then she would punish those who hurt people. Real people. Like her. Where were the saviors of the planet when she needed them? Oh, of course stupid Yume was too irrelevant. She wasn't foolish enough to think she warranted their attention, oh no, not Yume. It all sounded like a game, a wonderful story that didn't apply to real life, no, not at all.   
All Yume wanted was to be beautiful. For people to like her. People to love her, for a change. If she could be perfect enough- just perfect enough- figure out what it was that Kutsu saw that was so wrong with her- then she'd finally be accepted. Kutsu herself would ask forgiveness from Yume. And Yume would laugh and say it was all right, that Kutsu was just showing her what was wrong with her. And now that she was all fixed up.... They would laugh, and Kutsu would be kind, now that Yume was normal. And Yume would have a boyfriend. When she was perfect, she could do that. Who would want Yume as she was now, flawed and fat and ugly? Nobody, of course! Who would want such a thing? They say, 'Thing, oh Thing, go away, we don't want you here.'   
Yume looked at the perfectly pretty girl on the floor, kneeling, still lightly humming to herself as she worked. 

_atatakai kono omoi_   
_nee, hito ha donna namae de yondeiru no_

The Lady of the Mirror was like Kutsu. Yume knew that. Beautiful and pretty, almost too pretty, to the point of becoming something inhumanly so. And now that Yume had revenge on Kutsu, she needed someone to look up to. Someone beautiful, like Kutsu. And she was a Queen, surely, not merely a popular girl at school. As much as Yume hated Kutsu, she also adored her. How perfect was Kutsu, how witty and wise was Kutsu! How Kutsu had what Yume always wanted! And now Kutsu was beyond Yume's reach. So now there was the Lady of the Mirrors, who did not hate Yume. No, she needed Yume. Needed her to be her body, since hers was dead, and her soul was sealed back within the mirror once more.   
"You know the Sailor Senshi," Yume announced, her voice cold.   
_ She has just decided something. Hai, she has dedicated herself to this course of action now. Why? And to whom as she dedicated this duty?_   
"And you think to watch me as I write?" Kami replied as she blew lightly on her paper, drying the ink with her breath. The ink deepened as the wetness dried.   
"You called to the Mercury one with familiarity. Kanashimi-chan, you said," Yume stopped her inspection of the scanty bookshelves, turning to stand in the oval threshold of the mirror's surface. "How do you know her?"   
Kami set the last sheaf of paper aside, folding her hands and bowing her head. She sighed softly, once, then stood. She smiled faintly as her legs were stiff, and she stood slightly awkwardly. "I am getting old. My legs cannot sit for more than a few hours in the polite position anymore."   
Yume's lips tightened to a thin line as she watched Kami move to her dresser, and then reach up behind her head, pulling out the ribbons that held the loops of her hair in place. A cascade of purpling black fell around her face, and she pushed the curtain aside, so that she could comb it to smoothness. "All people have their demons, Yume-chan."   
"Tell me. How you know the Mercury one."   
Kami whisked the comb out of her hair, then began again at her scalp, running it smoothly though. "All people have Furies in their mind, preying on their weaknesses. Some think they are not good enough. Not pretty enough. Not strong enough, not popular enough, not smart enough, not kind enough, not wise enough." Kami set the brush down, and ran a hand over her hair thoughtfully. Then, she caught Yume's eyes. "I wonder; What is your Fury, Yume-chan?"   
Yume did not care to follow this course of conversation. Her eyes grew narrow, and her posture antagonistic, leaning forward. She ignored the reflective Kami, only looking at the living one, now calmly braiding her hair, plaiting it so that she could sleep more easily on such a length. Thick hair can be as much burden as beauty.   
"I'll watch you. Watch you and your family here. They'll lead me to the senshi, eventually. If you know them, then why not they?" Yume smiled as a thought crossed her mind. "Or perhaps they themselves are?" The words were barbed, careful, and Yume focused on Kami's face as she said them. Kutsu had taught her cruelty well. Kami tied off the end of her braid, then moved to her dresser drawer, pulling out a nightgown of yellow and white. She laid it out on the bed, then replied to Yume,   
"Watch what you will. My family has no secrets to hide from those who skulk about in mirrors. And know this," for the first time, Kami's voice grew hard as she faced the mirror. "If you harm them, the consequences will be greater than you may foresee. Harming innocent people will bring evil spirits down on you. In the end, that is always why darkness looses to light. It cannot abide itself alone."   
"You don't know what you're talking about," Yume growled, feeling angry. "You have no problems. People like you don't have problems. You're pretty. Pretty girl with long hair and pale eyes such a strange color. Thin and pretty, like on commercials and models. You speak prettily, and you move prettily. Like a lady of stories." Yume made a motion of disgust, backing away from Kami with the intention to leave.   
_ Ah, so that is the name of your Fury...._   
"Even the Safflower Lady found a kind man, Yume-chan. Beauty is a fleeting thing. All things wilt and die. A beautiful soul like yours does not."   
But Yume had already turned away.   
  


One Week Later:   


The smell of pizza wafted though Mamoru's apartment. Though it wasn't exactly gourmet- actually, it was a frozen pizza- it was a small attempt by Usagi to cook. It was nearing readiness, and the cheese was melted. Mamoru had the oven open a crack to check on it. Seeing the center still cold, he shut the door, setting the hotpad aside and turning around to watch Usagi struggle with the book she had in her hands. At the kitchen counter, his blonde girlfriend was standing, her head down, chewing her lower lip, one hand scratching absently at the back of her odangoed head. The book was open, and she was rereading the passage over, trying to grasp the concept presented.   
"Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked, looking up. Her lips twisted to the side, uncertainly, as her eyes clouded. "Do I have this right? People are born without any kind of preconceived ideas about anything? That seems simple enough...why is this such a big deal?"   
Mamoru left the oven, coming to stand beside and behind Usagi, who was busy again with the letters on the page. "Ah, Locke," Mamoru noted as he saw the page Usagi was on. "_Essay Concerning Human Understanding_, 1690..." he murmured as he caught up to where Usagi was. "Ah. Pretty much, yes. He claimed that when people are born, they are born as a 'blank slate'- _tabula rosa_, in Latin- As we hear and see things, we fill up this slate, though processes of reasoning and reflection. There's a difference between simply feeling something and understanding something. The influences of the world around you change your conceptions of yourself and the world."   
Usagi blinked, thought about that a moment, then nodded. "That seems simple enough," then she laughed, "Mamo-chan, arigatou, for helping me!" She clung to his arm for a moment, and grinned, sighing dreamily. "This is almost like a date...."   
"I thought you two were supposed to be studying," Luna drolled from the floor, looking up at the two humans. She had the cat equalivent of an eyebrow arch on her face, wryly watching the pair.   
"Never mind," Usagi said grumpily, releasing Mamoru. "It's exactly like one of our dates." She sat on one of the stools, frowning at her cat. "Dinner's not ready yet, Luna."   
"I didn't come in here for dinner. There's something on the news you two should see." Luna turned and sprinted off with feline quickness, back into the living room of the apartment. Curious, Usagi and Mamoru followed her, seeing Chibiusa on her feet, Diana in her hands, staring at the television.   
"Chibiusa-chan, what's wrong?" The pink haired girl shook her head, and stepped away from the television a bit.   
"It happened again. Another attack."   
The older two turned to watch the field reporter talking. She stood in a schoolyard, dressed smartly in a suit, formal and proper and plastic. It was a recorded video, since it showed light outside, and now the sky was overcast and cloudy. The reporter was saying, "...is the sixth such attack that's been recorded in the last week. Sources say that this small epidemic is afflicting students seemingly at random, and at all ages. The alleged victim is reported to be a minor, male, attending this elementary school. The name will not be released, do to the alleged victim's age. At approximately four o'clock today, an ambulance was called to pick up the child. Current reports say he is in fair condition, however is refusing...."   
Usagi and Mamoru turned to see Luna with a paw on the remote control, putting the television on mute. After a moment, the reporter and schoolyard scene flipped back to the newsroom, and the anchor launched into his next story. "Sixth the news had been able to pick up on," Luna said as she sat back on her haunches. "The first three were those girls, with Ami-chan and Minako-chan. Ami-chan reports that there were at least four more coming in, with similar symptoms as the original three, all from the Juuban district."   
"We fought her off once, at school," Usagi offered, frowning thoughtfully, a hand to her chin. "Yume...she was always so quiet.... I can't believe she's doing this on her own! Something's wrong. It's not like her."   
"Usako, how well do you know this Yume girl?" Mamoru asked, folding his arms. He looked between Usagi, then Chibiusa. When Usagi shook her head wordlessly, he focused on his future daughter. "Chibiusa-chan, that's your school, isn't it?"   
"Hai. I wonder..." her face puckered into a frown as she mentally went though all the people at school. "I wonder who'll be absent tomorrow.... Yume seems to be attacking people who made fun of her, right? For revenge?"   
"In the case of the first three, yes," Mamoru agreed, seeing where Chibiusa was going with her train of thought. "But how likely is it that someone in your school even knew Yume?"   
Chibiusa frowned, thinking about that.   
"Besides, Chibiusa, it's not likely that she'll come back," Usagi sighed, shrugging. "She seems to want to stay around Juuban High. It's freaky going there now," Usagi shuddered, thinking of the one battle they had been able to avert. Yume had come, still in the same green dress, still using her Tarot deck as a weapon. It had been Sailor Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus against her; Mamoru was at school himself, and Rei across town at T.A. Academy. Haruka and Michiru had not yet finished the transfer to their school. Yume was fast, despite her skinny body. She was almost emaciated, bone thin with sunken cheeks. But she was flushed and angry, and that lent her strength. Ever since that attack, and students had actually seen the Sailor Senshi appear, the school was locked up tight, on high security. Seeing Senshi was always a treat- so mysterious- except for when they're battling in your backyard. Then it was scary. Yume hadn't seemed particularly concerned with the punishment of her now terrorized former tormentor. In fact, she hadn't even attacked him again. But she vanished quickly as more senshi arrived before her. And she had been smiling quietly. Not maniacal laughter. Just a simple smile, a check of her watch, and then vanishing. Almost like she was timing their arrival there, and who showed up.   
"Usagi-chan," Diana piped up quietly from Chibiusa's arms, "I smell something burning." The Moon Princess's eyes rounded huge, she made a small 'eep' sound, then spun, hurtling out of the room after her small attempt at cooking frozen pizza. Mamoru was right behind her- he didn't need his kitchen struck by Usagi in tornado mode. Luna shook her head, darting off after them, shouting advice on how not to burn pizza.   
Hearing a sigh, Diana tried to twist around to see Chibiusa's expression. Which, she found, was thoughtful.   
"Diana, Yume returned to Juuban High several times, didn't she?"   
"Hai," Diana agreed, squirming out of Chibiusa's grasp to stand beside her mother on the table. "You think she'll return to your school?"   
Chibiusa nodded, sitting down on the couch and putting her chin in her hands. She looked at the two cats, one black, one grey. "I'm the only senshi at my school. Maybe Usagi-chan and the others scared her off from the high school."   
"But why would she attack your school? She probably doesn't know anyone...."   
"And why would she know whoever she sent to the hospital today?" Chibiusa looked at the tv, now in the middle of a lawnmower commercial. She frowned and hit the remote, turning it off. The screen went blank, and she heard Usagi and Mamoru clattering around in the kitchen, and the sound of plates being pulled down from cupboards. "She's picking on bullies, I bet. I've got three boys in mind, and I bet any money it was one of them sent to the hospital. They probably deserved it."   
"Small Lady!" Diana gasped, startled. "How can you say anyone deserves such a thing?"   
Chibiusa shrugged. "Diana, don't you remember how mean people were in the future? It was always just the two of us. I'd've liked to show some of them a thing or two," her voice soured, remembering the meanness of some people. Accusing her of not being the princess at all. A fake princess. That was why she had snuck into her Mother's room, snatching the Silver Crystal when she did. Chibiusa frowned, then continued, "I wouldn't do what Yume is doing. But I can see why she's doing it. I bet she'll be back at school tomorrow. And I'm the only senshi there."   
Diana was watching Chibiusa carefully, seeing the memories of her past- everyone else's' future- pass though her eyes. Diana knew Chibiusa missed having human friends. She was her best friend in the future, but also her guardian. It wasn't the same. Until Chibiusa met Hotaru, and had a real, human friend, she had never been completely happy. "Then you'll have to be careful," Diana decided, taking on her role of advisor to the future princess. "And don't forget your communicator. If you need help, you'll have to call for it."   
"Hai..." Chibiusa nodded, standing up with a determined expression.   
Just then, Usagi poked her head out of the kitchen, pigtails trailing behind her as she called, "Chibiusa-chan! It's ready! And it's only a little crunchy on the one side...." She grinned, then laughed. "Come on! Dinner!"   
And Chibiusa ran to join her parents.   
  
  


********************   


Well, how's this chapter? General notes for the end have to include the songs that were being sung. The one that Kami is humming while Yume is there is, "Hiiro no Tsuki" from Outlaw Star. If you haven't heard the song, do your best to get it! It's one of the most beautiful anime songs I've ever heard. Kami is saying; 

"Will I ever understand why time comes and goes? My heart aches,   
And now it is becoming gentle.   
This feeling is so warm...   
Is it true that people are just their names?" 

And the song that Hotaru sings is one of her character songs, _"Miss Dream_." Also one of the most beautiful anime songs I've heard, and defintiely among the best of the Sailor Moon ones. I got the lyrics for _"Miss Dream_" off of Lyric Moon, and "_Hiiro no Tsuki_" from animelyrics.com. As for a translation of the lyrics used here for "_Miss Dream"_....no, I'm not giving them to you right now. ^_~ They'll be used in English later in the story. So you'll have to wait til then.   
Also in the conversation with Yume, I made a couple references to Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji." The waka (poem) that Kami speaks of- 

"The firefly but burns and makes no comment.   
Silence sometimes tells of deeper thoughts."  Is an excerpt from "Genji." Also, Kami refers to the 'Safflower Lady,' a character within "The Tale of Genji," who was not known for being particularly pretty.   
Also, in this chapter and forward, Hotaru and will start to call Kami 'sister.' (Older sister: Onee-san.) That scene in Kami's room was basically a turning point for that. Biologically, they are not related, (I don't think Kami has a blood relation to anybody, the way she was reborn! o.O) but they consider themselves sisters. Originally, in 'Bloom of the Mountain Cherry' I never included Kami's mother, or what happened to her. Over the course of writing it, I thought about what could have happened to her. I knew she was dead- Kami lived only with her father. I rejected plague almost right away- too simple, too over-used. It's true people fell ill easily then, and without medical knowledge, it was easy to die that way. But I didn't like it. (Not that you can really like a particular method of death....^^;) Also, Kami fell ill with a supposed 'plague'- I didn't want to use it twice. So I considered something a little more unusual. I knew with earthquakes, there were many fires. So that became what happened to Kami's mother. Once I got here, I realized how similar to Hotaru's past that sounded. Which is weird. And at this point, I'm so used to thinking of that as her past, I didn't want to change it. So it stuck. Hotaru and Kami are very much reflections of each other. Another odd thing that fit into place with Kami and her senshi status.   
And as always, mail! I'd love to hear what you thought of the chapter. I've noticed my Kami stories are always a little dark, and that's rather odd for me. (Not that they're all sunshine and pink bunnies or anything...o.O) Let me know what you think. Arigatou, minna-sama.   
Ja ne, til next chapter!   
-Queen

iceaffinity@hotmail.com   



	6. Chapter 4- The Angel Who Trumpets The De...

GoldenRuleChapter4.html 

The GoLden Rule 

_"I am the edge on which the collective dangerously waltzes...."_   
_-MJ Stone, 'Zero in the Tarot'_   
__   
__   


Chapter 4: The Angel Who Trumpets the Dead 

  
In the background, Chibiusa heard the sounds of people screaming. It wasn't the horrible, terrified screaming she was growing accustomed to; this was the excited screaming of people cheering on a young boy, who hit a baseball with a satisfying smack. The bat was flung to the ground, and he took off running, churning up mud as he ran to first base. Intermurals were in full swing at the elementary, and a group of children were running around and jumping as their classmate reached first base. A teacher called for them to calm down, laughing slightly at their excitement.   
"You really believe she'll show up?" Diana asked, crouching down beside the pink haired girl. Chibiusa nodded once, determinedly. All day, she had been leaping over small things. Momo and Kyusuke kept asking her, over and over again, if everything was all right. Chibiusa sighed, settling down, watching a plastic bag pirouette idly in the parking lot. She was just off to the side of the brick building, a spot of light pink against the dark brown brick of the side of the school. Bushes obscured her view to the right, and the baseball diamond lay to her left. Diana had snuck along in her bookbag that morning, insisting that there was no way Small Lady was going by herself, in such a situation as she believed. So the kitten had been hiding around the schoolyard most of the day, worrying and watching. At first, devotion to her Princess had kept her from questioning her reasoning, but as the day wore on, Diana became more dubious.   
"Hai," Chibiusa said calmly. "The baseball game is still going. She'll show up. There's still people here." She leaned against the wall, feeling her pigtails stick slightly to the rough surface of the brick, which scratched her skin. She closed her eyes, feeling the darkening sun on her eyelids. "We just have to be-"   
"There!" Diana exclaimed, leaping to all fours. Chibiusa opened her eyes, and watched a spot on the surface of the school parking lot. It was a ring of wind, kicking away dust from the concrete. Then floating objects formed, an array spiraling in a globe around a solitary figure in their center. It grew solid, and the girl's hair and dress settled around her shoulders and knees, the cards settling into her hands, half the deck in each palm. She turned halfway, hearing another cheer go up from the playing children. The cheer intensified, and Yume turned, beginning to walk towards the game. "Small Lady! Henshin yo!"   
"Hai!" Chibiusa ducked to a side, between the decorative shrubbery and the side doors into the school. "Diana," she took off her communicator, and tossed it down to the kitten. Diana caught it in her mouth, and set it down, preparing to call for backup. "Superman I am not, but..." She lifted her hand into the air. "Pink Moon Crystal Power!" Bright light burst from her, a dazzling display of pink and silver light, wrapping itself around her in a flurry of feathery brightness. White boots hit the ground, and once again, Sailor Chibi Moon appeared, this time in Eternal form.   
  
Yume approached the baseball diamond, one step at a time. She took her time, lazily observing a girl go up to bat, and the jeers of the other team, and the cheering of her own. The pitcher threw the ball; swing, miss. The umpire shouted, 'Strike!' and the ball was thrown back. Again, the pitcher threw, and this time the ball was hit, popping up into the cloudy sky. Outfielders backpedaled, eyes up, searching for the spot. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," Yume whispered quietly, in a sing-songy voice.   
"Stop right there!"   
Yume smiled, and did as the voice commanded. The young one stood there, all pink and white and defiant, going though the motions that the elder Moon did.   
"Agent of Love and Justice, Sailor Chibi Moon! And in the name of the future moon," she turned, bringing her hands up and around in the familiar pattern, "I will punish you!" she finished.   
"Strange thing, your punishing me," Yume began, watching her opponent drop into a more battle-ready pose, hands up and ready to summon her own Moon Scepter. She brought up her cards, and began to turn the uppermost over idly, tapping her finger on the top of it. Flip, flip. "No trial, no jury. You say you're going to punish me. Am I not doing the same as you?" "To innocent people?" Chibi Moon demanded, and her own Chibi Moon Scepter formed in her hands. To her surprise, it now mirrored the appearance of Sailor Moon's Eternal Rod. "That is nothing like what I do!"   
"Really?" Yume asked, turning over her topmost card. "You don't see why people behave why they do? I demand justice as well. Is that so different?"   
Chibi Moon watched the card flip over and over in Yume's hands. The patient gesture, as though pacing, waiting for something else to happen. The others, Chibi Moon realized. She's waiting for the other senshi...but why? She'd be hopelessly outnumbered against them- it would make no sense. Something...something to throw her off balance! Chibi Moon lifted her Rod to the air, and used a low power attack to distract her. "Pink Sugar Heart Attack!"   
To Chibi Moon's surprise, the weak line of hearts blasted out many times stronger than she had expected, and Yume's eyes widened enormously as she leapt up into the air, backing away rapidly from the energy pulse. As time went by, her heart had strengthened, and her powers had grown, reflecting her experience and changing. The blast impacted in the ground Yume had stood on, buckling the concrete and sending chunks of black pavement up into the air. Looking up from her crouching position, Yume spread her deck of cards in the air in a smooth motion, sending them in a whirlwind about herself, a single card left in her hands. "I wanted to spare you, you two little ones. Children shouldn't have to suffer so. Was right about you, too? We'll let the cards decide!" Yume seemed sad, and Chibi Moon saw tears in those distant eyes. But the distance increased into hardness, and Yume recovered, shouting and pointing in command, "Five of Pentacles!" One of the floating cards stilled, the others flying into a circle around it as it flipped around, the the image painted on the front becoming visible. Five stars, with shining pointed edges, flew out of the image in rapid succession as the card swung around and away, joining the others into Yume's hands again.   
Chibi Moon leapt up and aside, flipping her body back and forth, though one, two, three four of the stars. The fifth tore into the bubble-like sleeve of her fuku, and slid across the surface of the skin of her shoulder. Crimson droplets of blood flowed to the surface. It stung, but was little more than a scratch. She brought her own Eternal Rod to bear, this time preparing a more powerful attack. "Starlight Honeymoon...."   
"Judgment!"   
"Therapy..." Chibi Moon never finished, as the single card Yume had retained in her hands was thrown, flying rapidly towards her. Justice, blindfolded and carrying the scales, raced straight towards her, a stream of cards following suit, spiraling up around her. Against her will, her body stopped moving, and the final word died on her lips, not even a whisper. There was no pain, only immobility. Yume watched as the girl dropped her scepter, and watched as it dissolved before it hit the ground, returning to the subspace it was summoned from. Her head tilted back, and the Judgment card settled on her forehead, creating a blinding pink nimbus of aural light around the girl. Her feet left the ground, floating as the cards spiraled endlessly around her.   
"Judgment...open your mind. Show me your part in the battle of the Lady of the Mirror," Yume commanded, stepping forward to finish her spell. The High Priestess card appeared in her hand, symbol of knowledge, secrets and magic. But before she could move forward another step, a rose struck her uplifted hand, and forced her to release the card between her fingers. The tip embedded itself in the ground, a red petal fluttering onto the serene face of the High Priestess.   
Yume whirled to see Tuxedo Kamen, standing with a new rose readied, just to her side. With a sharp motion of her hand, the cards abandoned Chibi Moon, and the light vanished like a candle gone out. The girl collapsed to the ground in a heap, and a small grey kitten streaked out across the parking lot, intent on getting to her fallen Princess. "Perfect timing, as usual," Yume began, looking at the back of her hand. Blood was pooling on the surface, in a thin, fine line that stung. She took her cards in hand again, and blood stained the corners of some, fallen from the tiny wound. "Chiba Mamoru," she concluded quietly, but still loud enough for Tuxedo Kamen to hear. Behind the mask, she saw his face register shock. He was a more dangerous enemy than she had originally expected, and much of this little ploy would rely on her ability to manipulate him in the next few moments. "Your girlfriend's little cousin...or sister? Never did quite clear that all up- put up a lovely little fight," she antagonized, barbing her words carefully. His reaction was quick: he threw the rose in hand, and Yume was ready, side stepping even as he drew his hand back. With quick reflexes, she snatched the thrown rose out of the air, feeling the thorns bite into her skin. They hurt, digging into the flesh. She winced, but crushed the bloom in her fingers, sending the petals falling down behind her. "I have no need for you," she snapped, seeing the puncture wounds on her hand. They stung. "Ten of Swords!"   
She lifted her hand up, and the deck rested in her hand. The bottom card- now exposed- was the image of a man, fallen and bleeding, with an excess of ten long blades digging into his back. Those same swords shot out of the face of the card, rushing in with frightening speed...at Chibi Moon's still form. As she expected, instead of easily dodging the visible attack, he leapt in front of it, meaning to take the blow himself, rather than the girl.   
"Deep Submerge!"   
Yume whirled to see two new figures enter the arena, Uranus now racing ahead of Neptune, who had stopped to throw her globe of water. It struck the swords before Tuxedo Kamen, blasting them into the air and far off target. The blue orb of seawater impacted into a far parked car, sending it shooting upward with a noisy explosion. The happy screams of cheering children cut off abruptly, and then were replaced by screams of a different sort, as a second blast sent parts of the school building into the air.   
"World Shaking!"   
Yume leapt, rolling to the side. They were faster today, arriving closer to communication time than she had estimated. Coming back to her feet, she watched as two more figures appeared just behind them, each of these carrying a weapon. A staff, and a glaive. "Small Lady!"   
"Chibi Moon!"   
Pluto fell down beside Chibi Moon, pulling her up part way to check her heartbeat. Saturn brought her glaive to bear, standing defensively before the other two senshi.   
"Guided by the new age, soldier of the Sky, Sailor Uranus! Fights with elegance!"   
"Also guided by the new age, soldier of the Depths, Sailor Neptune! Fights with grace!"   
"Soldier of Revolution, guardian of the time space star, Sailor Pluto!"   
"And the soldier of Destruction and Rebirth, Sailor Saturn," the youngest Outer senshi concluded. The four stood in formation with Tuxedo Kamen, arranged so that they could cover the best possible positions. Yume watched them, standing with her feet midst the rubble from Uranus' blast. Each were prepared to fight, weapons in hand, though Pluto cradling Chibi Moon. It was only a matter of moments, then. And on cue, she heard footsteps. From one direction, crossing the field, four girls, the winged Eternal Sailor Moon just a step behind Jupiter. She glanced to the opposite direction, and the figure of Sailor Mars was materializing, red heels clipping against the street. Everyone was there. It was time for the curtain to rise.   
And so it did. The ring of senshi around her were as though on stage, perfectly going into their rehearsed phrases of introduction. Yume summoned her cards to her again, taking the stack into her hands, turning the top card over and over, flip, flipflip....   
"...and in the name of the moon, I will punish you!" Eternal Sailor Moon finished, three of her senshi just behind her, and Mars acting in unison from Yume's other side. So Yume kept her head down, waiting. How carefully she timed this, how delicately. Too soon, and it would be awkward. Too late, and they would attack before she were able to act.   
"Schoolyards always seem to be the places of battle, don't they, Tsukino Usagi?" Yume asked, quietly looking up though her eyelashes. If her first words did not forstall attack, then the final ones certainly did. "It's really a pity, ne? We're told that school is supposed to be a safe place for our children, and what happens?" She kept her charade carefully, fighting back a knot of nausea in her belly. Being in the spotlight made her feel ill. But anger gave her strength. So she continued, voice wavering, "People get hurt. Not just by maniacs with guns, but by other people's hatred and hard hearts. Which is worse, Usagi? A person who kills, _or the person who made them that way?_" She flicked her eyes from one senshi to the next, carefully keeping them spellbound. "Mizuno Ami, genius freak," she turned, "Kino Makoto. Violent freak." Again her eyes roamed, matching each senshi as she spoke. "Aino Minako, outsider. Hino Rei, fearsome powers. Kaioh Michiru, snob. Tenoh Haruka, weird, plain and simple." Yume finished by looking at the three remaining girls. "Tomoe Hotaru, freakish magic, and Meioh Setsuna who no one can understand."   
Faces shift in appearance as the words were spoken, varied expressions of startlement, anger, betrayal, memory. Always outsiders, the senshi. With each other, they were strong. Perhaps that was why- only they understood one another. And their leader, Sailor Moon. Then there was the Princess. Who never lacked for friends. Who everyone adored. Perfect pretty Princess. Winged with white and armed with Love.   
Sailor Moon watched Yume stand still before them, her gaze turning in the ring of senshi around her. No one needed to be sacrificed. Yume was wrong, but she was not lashing out because she was evil. No, Yume could be healed...helped....   
"Yume-chan," Sailor Moon began softly, reaching out with a hand. "It doesn't have to be this way. Honto.... Yume-chan, all people are good at heart. Hurting them this way isn't going to improve on them...it only makes things-"   
"You're delusional!" Yume spat, the flipping of the cards in her hands stopping as her fingers tensed. Sarcasm is a sword to be wielded, and Yume had heard enough of it in her time to be an effective fencer. "People good at heart? It only works that way in your deluded mind, Usagi! People are viscous at heart! Do you think kind people tear into the minds of others? Do you think kind people hate and make war and kill? Do you think kind people would make me do this?" Yume's voice was escalating, rising to a fevered pitch. Hot tears were forming at the corners of her eyes. Strain from her emotions, strain from magic...strain from seeing so many eyes full of pity.   
"Yume-chan...onegai...you didn't kill those people because you are good at heart...."   
"Delusional! You're delusional!" Yume screamed, squeezing her eyes shut, and bringing her hands to her ears as though to clamp out the sound of Sailor Moon's voice. Kindness unseen for so long is often mistaken for what it is not. And so Yume suffered, and disbelieved.   
"Yume-chan..." Sailor Moon tried again, reaching out and stepping forward in an attempt to embrace the girl. But Yume opened her eyes and saw the winged shadow on the ground, a silhouette. And her confusion left her, and she glared as she opened her eyes fully. Sailor Moon hesitated on looking into the distant eyes.   
"Don't pity me. Pity the ones who suffer at the words of the hard of heart."   
Sailor Moon straightened herself. She had lost something with those words...a contact with Yume. Sympathy. Yume was making herself cold and heartless, perhaps to do what she had set herself to doing. Revenge. A dream of revenge....   
"Then we will stop you."   
Yume's lips quirked up into a faint smile. She too straightened, pulling herself up to her full height. "Stop me? Try it, Princess. At the Hall of Mirrors." She shot a sharp glance at Mars, whose face tightened in understanding, and at the memory. Yume clutched her cards, and then threw them around her, the slips of them dancing around her like leaves, floating down from autumn trees.   
"Matte!"   
"Hermit!"   
"Supreme Thunder!"   
"World Shaking!"   
The field of lightning crashed into the globe of energy, impacting at the place Yume had stood. Only a faint tracery of her image remained, residual and glowing in the light of electricity and brightness. And as the two attacks of Jupiter and Uranus canceled each other out, she faded away into nothingness. The senshi shielded their eyes as the lights died away, revealing only a burn scar on the ground where Yume had stood. Electricity crackles over the ground once, then was gone.   
A soft groan interrupted the silence.   
"Chibiusa-chan!" Sailor Moon shrieked, then whirled on a heel, the image of a worried mother, a super-heroine, and a hysterical teenager at once. Tuxedo Kamen fell into step with her, both of them crowding around Pluto, and the limp body of Sailor Chibi Moon. Another figure drew close, Mercury, her visor across her eyes and her fingers tapping busily on the keys of her computer. "Chibi Moon? Chibi Moon?" Sailor Moon pleaded, taking her daughter's hand in hers. "Chibiusa-chan...wake up...."   
Blearily, red eyes opened and turned from Pluto's face, sliding along to see her the young versions of her parents faces above her. "Sailor Moon..." she licked her lips, and her eyes closed again. "Tuxedo Kamen...sama..." Again, her head went limp, and Pluto held her more tightly, supporting her neck against her chest.   
"She's sleeping," Mercury announced as a final display of data streamed across the monitor of her computer. "Slipping into heavy REM sleep." As though to confirm this, Chibi Moon's eyelids began to flutter lightly. Her skin seemed transparent, the fine lacings of veins in her eyes stark and harsh against her.   
"Chibiusa-chan..." Tuxedo Kamen whispered, standing. Then, more clearly, "We have to get her to a hospital."   
"Iie," Mercury intervened. "There's no need for it. It will only put her in a more vulnerable situation. Her vitals seem to be regular. The sleep appears to be a response to physical strain," she frowned at the readings, biting a lip as she thought. "She'll recover quickly. Her body is compensating for...for whatever Yume did to her."   
"We can't take her home!" Sailor Moon exclaimed, also standing. She looked at Mercury, pleadingly. "Mom and Dad...and Shingo!"   
"We'll take her to our house," Saturn said simply, tapping the end of her glaive to the ground, then holding it before her calmly. "It will be quiet there. Chibiusa-chan can rest."   
There were nods at the simple advice, and moments later, Tuxedo Kamen claimed Chibi Moon away from Pluto. It took only a moment for them to turn and run, with the swiftness that comes from the blessings of the planets. And with that speed, they went to the home of the Outer Senshi.   


_ I want to be there. Shimatta! This isn't right! I should be there! I should be fighting with them, not standing at home! I am samurai! I am senshi! Hotaru-chan, Kanashimi-chan! You can't fight without me! Shimatta! Waiting is the worst bane of a woman. To wait for loved ones to return home. Perhaps that is the worst battlefield- time._   
She paced in the living room, then to the hallway, waiting. Shadows from the brightness outside cut sharply across her steps, light against dark in a contrast of same color. Silent feet ghosted across the wooden floors, polished to a shine. She almost slid across on her slippered feet, gliding gracefully as she worried. Then the sound of footsteps reached her ears, muffled sounds of people hurrying on the opposite side of the door.   
Kami whirled, and unlocked the door, flinging it wide to admit the senshi, Mamoru in front, with the limp form of Chibiusa in his arms. "Chibiusa-chan..." Kami trailed faintly, then looked out at the rest of the incoming senshi, Diana bounding along quickly before them. "Hotaru-chan?" she asked as Hotaru passed her, then, "Kanashimi-chan! Daijobu ka?"   
Ami piped up from the back of the crowd, huddling along inside as Makoto pushed her way past the doorframe. "Hai, Kami-chan. Chibiusa-chan suspected that Yume would return to her school, and attempted to fight her alone. She should have told us...." Ami trailed, then hurried ahead. Her pause had set her at the back of the group, and Kami quietly shut the door, locking it and leaning against it.   
"Should have told us...."   
_ This is my fault...I thought she was bluffing....How else would Yume know how to find Chibiusa-chan? She does nothing without strategy...._   
Kami straightened herself out and followed everyone into the main room, hanging back as Mamoru tenderly lay out his future daughter on the couch, placing a pillow behind her head. As she moved slightly, a soft groan escaped her, and she stirred, opening her eyes. "Mamo-chan?"   
"Chibiusa-chan? How do you feel?"   
"Chibiusa-chan?" Usagi pressed her face closer, leaning over Mamoru's shoulder.   
"Tired..." she whispered before closing her eyes again, black lashes stark against her pale skin. "Sleepy...." Her head turned and again she was asleep, drifting on waves of dreams. Her hand, curled up in Mamoru's, released, and fell to her side.   
"That bitch has to go down," Haruka declared from the window. She stood there with her arms folded, a menacing look on her face. "Look at this. Chibiusa may end up being all right, but that was luck. She was doing to her what she did to the others...she could have been killed...." Michiru stood beside Haruka, face equally grim.   
"Don't call her that," Hotaru chided gently, from where she knelt beside the fireplace. "Yume is acting on her emotions. Her rage against the disgraces that have been acted out on her. Her thoughts are convoluted, though her heart is in the right place." She looked at Haruka. "Haruka-papa, don't hate her. Such things bring great pain."   
Silence followed this for a moment.   
"Hotaru-chan," Rei began quietly, her voice rising, "her actions are inexcusable. I'll never forgive her for this!" The soldier of Fire's fist clenched as she cast a violet eyed glance at Chibiusa.   
"Iie, Rei-chan," Ami intervened, shaking her head and also looking at Chibiusa. Then she looked at Rei, meeting her eyes. "Inexcusable, yes. But forgiveness is what she needs. No one wants her. Pushing her away further will only isolate her more."   
"So then what?" Rei snarled. "We love her to death?"   
Ami remained silent.   
"What I'd like to know," Minako wondered aloud, "is why Chibiusa? Yume never even knew her."   
A faint whisper was the reply from the doorway, where Kami leaned nervously. "Gomen nasai, minna...it's my fault...."   
The senshi started from their positions, staring at the darkened doorway. Kami leaned forward a bit, streams of hair trailing down sides of her face. Small tears gleamed like diamonds in the corners of her eyes. "Gomen nasai...."   
"What?"   
"Kami?"   
"What did you say?"   
"She...Yume...appeared in my mirror awhile ago...at night...and said she would watch us. I thought she was bluffing...that if I acted that we had nothing to hide, then she would not watch from the mirrors...gomen nasai!" Kami looked up, hands clasped, tears falling onto her cheeks. "I should have acted differently. Should have told you...but I didn't see her again...gomen! Gomen!"   
"Matte, Kami!" Usagi called as Kami turned away, ready to run to her room for safety. "Come back. Onegai?" Usagi turned from her kneeling position at the couch, and stood. "You couldn't have known she'd target Chibiusa. You should have said something to us. That's why we work together. Sailor Team."   
_ Sailor Team...ha. _"What use am I to a team?" she said bitterly. "I am Sailor Nothing."   
"Kami-chan!" Ami exclaimed, worried as Kami's face shut quietly down on itself. Withdrawing was not a good sign from Kami- she hid her feelings too easily when it came to her own decisions. Affecting others, she was open. Affecting herself...it was her Fury, the demon within, and drove her to extremes that Ami knew too well. "You will find the words, Kami-chan! You are senshi! We are all senshi! Don't forget that! We have a future to work for. You are part of that. Remember, Kami-chan. To live above the clouds! With all of us."   
_ And I have failed so many times. I am a fool. This is not my time, my place. I failed in one small thing...what good am I as a senshi if I cannot even open my mouth and tell them they are going to be watched from shadows? Baka! Kami no baka! All my fault...._   
Kami drew herself up quietly, and painted a smile on her face. "Gomen ne, Kanashimi-chan. You are right. Hotaru-chan said as much to me as well. I'm...going to go to my room...I need to rest." She turned away, then hesitated. "I hope Chibiusa-chan gets well soon. She will be well, I take it, since she is not in a sick house?"   
"Hai," Ami replied quietly, not fully believing Kami's quick switch of moods. "She will be better soon."   
Kami nodded once, then turned away.   
"We need a plan," Makoto sighed, leaning against the wall. "Hall of Mirrors, she said. And she looked at you, Rei-chan. Do you know what she meant?"   
Rei was already nodding in remembrance. "The Dead Moon Circus. Where I got my Mars Crystal, remember?"   
There were nods, thinking of when Rei had come out of there, them all woozy from being trapped within the Big Top. She had broken through Palla Palla's spell on her own. No small feat. "I think that's why."   
"It's a trap, either way." Haruka mentioned consideringly. "She attacked Chibiusa once. She may try again. One of us should stay here, at least. To watch her, and make sure she doesn't get worse."   
There we nods.   
"I will," Mamoru said with a sacrificing sigh. "Usako?"   
"I agree," she whispered, thinking of having to fight without him. No one to protect her. But wasn't she Sailor Moon? What would happen, if Mamoru were gone? She shuddered to think of it. Never would that happen. Not Mamo-chan.   
"Be careful, Usako," he warned, glancing at the other senshi. "Be safe."   
"We'll take care of her, Mamoru-san," Michiru encouraged him, smiling softly. "Don't worry."   
He sat down, avoiding Chibiusa. The girls trooped out of the house, and then all was quiet as they left for battle without him.   
Damn, he hated feeling useless.   


Yume sat within the center of the labyrinth of mirrors. The room had changed little, though the overturned throne on the dais was uprighted, its back pressed against the mirror behind it. Yume was still, hands resting lightly on the arm rests, fingers curling over the ends. Her head lay low, and a spread of cards lay on her lap. Quietly, she waited, raising her head to look in the foremost mirror, across from her. It was shattered, as many of these were shattered, the images on the glass showing distorted visions. Faces, many faces, filled each sliver, at angles above, below, side, front, back. Beautiful faces, full of determination. Marching. Marching to the Hall of Mirrors where Yume waited on her righted throne. Waited calmly, and watched as the nine senshi approached her, battle ready. They shifted in a kaleidoscope of colors, orange to blue, blue to red, red to green...faces shifting across the broken mirror.   
And they stopped outside the main door.   
Mars stepped forward slightly, frowning as she saw the ruin of the sideshow. The sun had set, and the broken sign over the door swayed slightly in the breeze, the neon glow of it long dead. Gravel crunched underfoot, and she paused at the glass doorway. "Minna," Mars turned around, facing the other senshi. "When I first went in here, the doors vanished. It may be a good idea to assume that any escape route will also be cut off behind us now." There were a few nods at her words, and then Mars continued, "Inside is a labyrinth of mirrors. It'll be easy to get lost or separated. Try to stick together when you're inside..." she trailed off, and a couple pairs formed around the senshi, though others remained still. "It's full of illusions," Mars concluded, and she heard Sailor Moon step up beside her, the Moon Tier already in hand in preparedness.   
"Hai, Mars-chan. Ready?"   
Mars shrugged, folding her arms, and mock seriously commented, "I've been ready. You're the one who's always late, baka."   
Sailor Moon teased back with a wink, "Not this time. Let's go, minna!" she called, and they fell into line behind her, opening the doors smoothly with gloved hands. And so they descended into the nightmare. 

  
Polished glass was gone from here, and was replaced by cobwebs with busy lady spiders spinning. Dust had settled thickly, making the sticky gossamer threads of the arachnids white and gleaming. Cracked looking glasses lay on the floor, fragmented into sharp blades. Many though still stood in their old positions, rigid against time and in defiance of their neglect. With wonder, awe, and wariness, nine figures watched themselves move carefully though. They stayed close, armlengths apart, within easy reach. Silence was heavy as a blanket, muffled and thick, punctured faintly by quiet breaths and the shuffling of feet against the floor.   
"Look," Jupiter pointed out, just behind them. As Mars had suggested, the doors had been wiped away into invisibility. Only smooth wall remained, a darkened red exit sign the only testament to the fact that this was wrong. A string of broken lightbulbs hung overhead, one out of every few glowing dimly. Enough to see, though not enough to cast away the shadows within. "Mercury," Jupiter continued a little nervously, "you have anything on your scanner?"   
Mercury was slowly turning, her visor across her face, reflecting the data she was reading. "There's a dampening field of some sort. Most likely magical. Emanating from approximately thirty meters..." she paused, indigo eyes narrowing. "Straight ahead. Though the labyrinth."   
"Then let's go," Venus decided, stepping forward. But oddly, no one accompanied her. Puzzled, she looked over her shoulder. "Minna?" They ignored her still, and her eyes widened, taking a step forward and reaching out, only to see that her fingers had impacted on the smooth surface of a mirror. "Shimatta! Minna!" Venus pounded against the glass. Uranus was standing only an armslength away. "Uranus! Neptune!" Venus shouted as the room darkened, beating her fists against the glass. "Stop! I'm here! Uranus! Uranus!"   
But Uranus grabbed Neptune's wrist. "Don't let go," the blond senshi warned her partner, and Neptune nodded, clasping the other's hand. "Together."   
"Hai."   
They moved forward, following Pluto and Saturn, who were disappearing though a hallway within the maze. Each kept close, Pluto just on Mercury's heels, her Staff up, even as Saturn brushed Pluto's hair as she walked a half pace behind, her Glaive ready in one hand. Backs were turned to them, Sailor Moon to the forefront, scepter in hand and up, ready for anything. She turned a corner, and others followed, hearing Mercury say softly, "eighteen meters...."   
Rounding a corner, Jupiter bumped into a pane of clear glass, and she carefully took a step back, rubbing her forehead at the impact. But her heel struck the back of a mirror, and as she leapt forward, she shouted a warning to the others. It was cut off before anyone turned, and Jupiter too vanished into the darkness. Mars straightened slightly, pulling out a slip of paper, her banishing ward written in firm black ink across the front of it. "Jupiter?" she murmured, hesitating and looking behind her. She saw the green-clad senshi's reflection, looking bewildered and staring, rubbing her forehead. Then the look of shock, and the open mouth, shouting silent warning. "Minna! Stop!"   
Fragments of reflection turned to see her, and Mars herself realized that they had been carefully weeded apart from each other. Each vision she saw was a reflection, the appearance of her friends nothing more than an illusion. Keep them together, but separated. Reflections from the opposing sides of the mirrors, walking through glass that shifted, floating between them with more purpose than should be. She saw Mercury's head snap up, and her eyes go wild. She too knew, as did Pluto, who hefted her Timestaff, swinging it against the surface of the mirror, vainly trying to break her way out. Saturn turned, and she saw words form on her mouth, helplessly calling to Neptune and Uranus, who were still walking forward, within their own mirror, fingers still linked. Sailor Moon...Mars threw her paper at the glass, and saw a waterfall of shards that made no sound in the blackening world around her. "Sailor...Moon!"   
But their leader was gone from view.   


Yume looked at her mirrors. Each reflected an image of the senshi, within the darkened corridors of their own minds. Lost, frantic, screaming, bewildered. She turned over a card, and the images left, showing three people, two in one mirror, one in another. "You I'll deal with last," Yume decided, speaking softly to the singular form. "But you two..." she held it up lightly, revealing the card's hidden image. Lightly, she held it, between two fingers, then threw it at the reflection in the glass. "must separate. Five of Cups."   
Uranus tugged at Neptune's hand in the quiet. "We're alone, Neptune," she noticed, not hearing the footfalls of other senshi in the maze.   
"Oh?" Neptune asked as she turned, an eyebrow arched wryly. "This is hardly the place, Uranus."   
Uranus started, then grinned, shaking her head. "Maybe when we're outta here," she teased back, looking at the panes of glass around them. "Let's find the others-"   
Sharp pain ricocheted between their twined fingers, and their grip tore apart.   
"Uranus!"   
"Neptune!"   
Glass slid in smooth grooves across the floor, blocking their hands as they reached forward, attempting to clasp hands again. Blackness swept in, and became a tide, then a storm, pulling them further apart and into their own dreams....   
  


There was speed.   
And then there was _speed!_   
Tenoh Haruka knew how fast wind could howl in the ears. Though at the moment, sounds were muffled by the snug fit of a bright racing helmet. The sounds of a gunning engine did penetrate the headgear, and she felt the body of the machine kick under her as she floored the gas. So low to the ground the wind resistance was negligible, and her car was a bright yellow and blue streak across the raceway. It smelled of gas and oil and heat, of people crowded in the stands, and of food, popcorn and hot dogs. Just to her left, was her enemy. A car bright red and garish, just a half carlength ahead. They were rounding the curve, and Haruka had no intention of slowing down. She gunned it, full speed into the curve. Only a few seconds, and all would be over...this was the biggest race of her life! If she had thought about it, she would have considered that she didn't remember the name of the race...or what the prize was. At the moment, it didn't matter. Only racing. Only winning. Only flying at the fastest speed imaginable. Tear up the track, Tenoh. Burn the rubber tires on the pavement, and smell the stingy smell of it.   
Her opponent slowly only slightly, to take the curve with the slight bit of safety. This was all Haruka needed to shoot ahead that little bit, to take the lead, and to cross the finish line in a blaze of glory, checkered flags waving and the stands on their feet. She slowed, and felt the euphoria of winning.   
Into the winner's circle she stepped, removing her helmet and waving as men and women and newspaper photographers swarmed forward, milling around her and calling her name, trying to catch her attention, to get her to pose for the cameras. Someone shook and sprayed pop, and then beer, over the ecstatic crowd. Haruka dodged it, but pellets flew onto her face as she laughed.   
"This way, Tenoh-san!"   
"Over here!"   
"Oooh! He's so cute!"   
"Baka! That's a woman!"   
"Are you dedicating this victory to anyone, Tenoh-san?"   
"How does it feel, Tenoh-san?"   
Haruka waved them all back, laughing and tucking her helmet tightly under her arm as the crowds pressed closer.   
"It's all very wonderful, isn't it, Haruka-san?" A calmer voice asked. Haruka turned, a little startled by the comment. A tall young woman stood just to the side, withstanding the buffetting of the people around her, elbows and shoulders beating lightly around her, making her move slightly as she stood. She looked at Haruka with haunted eyes, green and wide.   
"Who are you?"   
The girl smiled, tossing a wisp of hair out of her face. She was dressed simply, in jean shorts and a green tank top. Then she reached forward, taking Haruka's elbow. "Is this really how you want to live, Haruka-san?"   
In absolute confusion, she looked down at the girl, who was just slightly shorter than she. "How I want to..." Haruka began, laughing. A pang stabbed at her heart, as though she were...missing something. The laugh sounded from her throat, brushing it off as she heard more calls from the crowd, encouraging her and congratulating her. "You crazy? What could be better than this?"   
"Maybe nothing," the girl replied, pushing her way though the crowd, gently guiding Haruka though it, back towards the stands, back towards the cars and the exits. "maybe," she finished with a slight emphasis, leaving Haruka puzzled again.   
"Who are you?" Haruka repeated, jerking her elbow away from the girl. She took up a firm stance, not to be budged easily. Who knew what kind of crazy she was? She could be a stalker, or a lunatic. If so, then Haruka could more than handle herself...Tenoh Haruka needed no one.   
"Kino Makoto," the girl replied, smiling and tilting her head. "And you feel it, don't you? The loss of something?"   
Haruka took a step back, eyes narrowing. "I haven't lost anything worth keeping."   
"Then why are you running, Haruka?" Makoto asked, pointing behind her. Haruka glared, then followed the direction Makoto pointed out, only to see the empty track behind her. No cars, no people. Several lanes, for runners to stand in, running blocks set. A couple guys in jogging shoes ran laps, and the bright sun was covered by a cloud, sending the arena into shifting points of brightness and darkness. "You always used to run," Makoto continued, as Haruka looked down to see herself in a tank top and shorts, running shoes tied tightly to her feet. "run away from everything. From fate and destiny. Isn't that what you always said?"   
"You're nuts," Haruka laughed, shifting from foot to foot. That was right, she had a race today. Not that she cared for foot races that much. No, her dream was to race cars, not other people. But this was good exercise. "People'll be showing up in a couple minutes for the track meet...."   
"Yes, and one will be a Kaioh Michiru," Makoto informed her, watching Haruka's face contort for a moment, eyes filling with confusion. Then they swept clean of doubt, and she frowned, glaring at Makoto. "I don't know any Kaioh Michiru. Look, if you're here for the meet, take a place in the stands and leave me alone."   
"You'd run from your destiny, Haruka-san?" Makoto prodded, approaching Haruka, carefully keeping eye contact. She feared to break it would mean Haruka's leaving.   
"You're crazy."   
"Then look here," Makoto gestured again, this time to the darkness under the stands. A mirror hung there, out of place and awkward in the aluminum stadium seating. Intricate and heavy, it balanced in the air against the rails. "Look in the mirror, Haruka. What do you see?"   
Unable to tear her eyes away, she looked, and the figure reflected back was herself, in a short skirt of blue, and a bow of yellow. A tiara on her brows. Confusion welled up again, and the desire to escape. To run and run, to run to the ends of the earth, to escape this, to flee. She backed away, turning to run.   
A hand cracked against her face, a sharp slap. "Coward," Makoto snapped, eyes hard.   
"No one calls me a coward!"   
"Then open your eyes and look!" Makoto shouted back, returning the stare. Over the confusion and the urge to run, she felt anger, at this little girl for defying her and slapping her. To prove her wrong, Haruka whirled, and focused her rising fury at the mirror.   
The figure in the odd clothing remained, now with a sword in her hand. It was outreached, beckoning, hilt first for Haruka to accept.   
_ "I didn't investigate you because you were the other soldier...it goes back much further than when I realized you were the one...."_   
Warily, she stepped forward, cautiously looking at herself in the mirror, the cold gaze returned fully. She turned her head slightly, observing herself carefully, sword proffered for the taking.   
_ "But when I realized that you were the one.... I was happy...."_   
The short haired blonde faded away, replaced with another figure, in blue and aqua, her hair waving down her shoulders as she smiled sadly. In her hand, she still gripped the sword. The words echoed around Haruka as the image faded away again, replaced once more with Sailor Uranus.   
"Michiru?"   
She reached into the mirror and took the sword from her own hand.   
And found the world again darkening to pitch blackness.   
  
  


******************** 

drumrolls>   
The senshi are locked in their dreams...and Makoto slapped Haruka! finds this very funny for some reason> hehehe....anyway, if you were wondering about that scene, and the upcoming ones, I'm playing off ideas presented in the SS manga. Each Inner found themselves unable to henshin, and during the course of their 'act' of the manga- when they raised up to Crystal Power level- they thought of an Outer. Thinking of that Outer seemed to give them a guide towards upping their level. So, I'm doing it in reverse here. Instead of Makoto thinking of Haruka, Haruka has Makoto as a 'guide.'   
Also, with Haruka's, you'll notice I'm using the anime-style of how Haruka and Michiru met...it's never seen in the manga- they just appear with Talismans in hand already. I'm assuming it was pretty much the same as in the anime, especially since Neptune fights off a manga-style daimon. (That big cloudy thing that leapt out of the miscellaneous victim's back? No bizarre underclad monster-women in the manga....) So I played off that. Michiru will have a plausible situation for herself as well. A life she wanted to lead. I had some difficulty with Pluto's, since we see so little of her in either anime or manga. But I'll talk about that after you've read it.   
Til then.   
Ja ne!   
-Queen 


	7. Chapter 5- Creeping Just The Same

The GoLden Rule   
__

_I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder._   
_"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane._   
_And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"_   
-Charlotte Perkins Gilman,_ 'The Yellow Wallpaper'_   
__   
__   
  


Chapter 5: Creeping Just the Same   


She cupped the violin to her chin, and under her hands, she felt the smoothness of the polished wood. Few people would expect Michiru to have calluses on her fingers. But years of pressing down the tension in the violin strings had strengthened her skin, and made it hard. The sounds she called from the Marine Cathedral poured through the hall, rising and falling as an ocean will dip and swirl, constant and changing. Swan Lake. The story of Odette and Odeel, of the handsome prince, and the wicked wizard and the swans who turn to women by the moonlight. The sounds of the ballet welled up against the acoustics of the hall. If she opened her eyes slightly, she could see the lights from the stage reflected in their eyes, against glasses and faces. Gowned women and men in tuxedos, their eyes on her.   
Black velvet pooled around her feet, the length of the train on her dress falling in folds of drapery. The lights from the theatre were hot, and though her hair was piled on top of her head, faint tendrils close to her neck stuck there. And the notes died away to a breathless silence. Then into a thunderous applause, as men and women stood, clapping their hands to complement her on her performance.   
Kaioh Michiru removed the violin from her cheek, and held the bow delicately as she bowed in gratitude for their approval. The stagelights darkened around her, but the hands did not stop clapping. A curtain call, then a second. Michiru had tears in her eyes. This was her first professional performance, first time as a solo act, on the world stage. And she was accepted.   
Finally, as all things must, people became quiet again, standing and gathering coats and hats, standing and leaving the concert hall, walking back up the red carpet. And so Michiru also turned to leave, placing the violin back into its velvet lined case.   
"Hey, great concert, Miss Kaioh!" One of the techies called to her, and she smiled and waved back. Soon she would be going to a limousine, escorted to her future life as a violinist.   
She determined to slip out the side. People still milled in the opera hall's main lobby, chatting as they departed and waited for taxi's. Wanting to be unseen until her arrival at...where was the next destination again? Michiru couldn't remember. Well, surely the driver would know where to go.... She sighed, wishing that one of the audience members hadn't been able to slip past security. A young woman in red silk, in imitation of Chinese dresses.   
"That was a wonderful performance, Michiru-san," the woman said as she leaned against the wall, arms folded. The backstage area was decorated, renovated several years ago to a classic appearance. Scarlet wallpaper and mahogany wood in the halls, lush carpet. Heavy portraits and paintings. And mirrors, such as what the girl stood before.   
The fact that the woman said so in Japanese was not lost on the violinist. It had been several months since she had been home. "You're from Japan?" Michiru asked, slightly startled, but pleased.   
"Hai," came the response. "Watashi wa, Hino Rei."   
"Kaioh Michiru. I'm very glad you enjoyed the performance, Hino-san."   
Rei nodded, straightening herself out. "Back to a hotel, Michiru?"   
"Iie, there's a reception....somewhere..." Michiru tried to explain, but couldn't quite remember yet. Where was the reception? Someone had to know...that was important, wasn't it?   
"Everything all right, Michiru?"   
The violinist touched her head with her callused fingers, trying to sort out her thoughts, which had become convoluted. A familiarity with the woman across from her, standing there so calmly, watching her. She should know this person. This was a person...who represented... something...something Michiru did not want to be part of....   
"I'm fine," Michiru snapped, fighting the confusion in her mind. "I'm not signing autographs...you should leave, Hino-san. Backstage is off limits." And so she brushed past the raven haired young woman, hurrying to rush away.   
"You know you have another duty. You know that this is not all of who you are."   
_ "I also have a dream...to become a violinist. I can't do something stupid like saving the world from destruction!"_   
The words sounded familiar, and then she realized they were in her own voice. Ridicilious...saving the world? Kaioh Michiru? The prissy girl everyone thought was stuck up? No...violinists don't go around saving the world...that was for...if not her, then who?   
"Michiru, you can feel it. Your senses are strong...you woke first." Rei prodded, seeing the confusion on the elder girl's face. "You don't have to fight far away and alone any longer...."   
_"...like saving the world from destruction!"_   
Something about a painting...a world about to be destroyed....   
Who was it that she said that to, again?   
"Michiru?"   
She looked up at Rei, who had stepped back, and placed a hand on the heavy wall mirror. "Look in here."   
She said that to somebody important...who...?   
Michiru was skeptical of the stranger's words, her way of speaking to her as though on familiar terms. But still, her feet moved forward, entranced, and she looked into the mirror on the wall, gilded in gold and reflecting her flawless face. But the image was altered. She wore no gemstone in a tiara on her brows, and a formal of black velvet, not a bow and short skirt and high heels. Gloves covering her hands, hiding the calluses from her practice with the violin. In her hand, no violin case, but a mirror of delicate creation.   
Michiru looked down at her hands, to be sure the reflection was not accurate.   
_"Neptune!"_   
That voice....   
"Uranus?" Michiru asked, reaching out and stepping into the mirror, forgetting everything behind her.   
  


It was black in the corridor between race track and concert hall. Uranus stood opposite Neptune, each with a Talisman in their hands. One a sword, one a mirror. Sea and sky. Far behind each of them stood the mirror, the doorway to this narrow, dark place. It let in little light, and the faces of each senshi were shadowed, though their eyes were unclouded.   
"You helped us," a new voice began, and both Outer Senshi turned to see Sailor Venus, stepping forward and standing between them, to the side. "When we lost our powers, unable to henshin, after the battle with Pharaoh 90. Thinking of the dedication of the senshi of the Outer System helped us to find our new powers, which lay dormant within." Venus held her gaze downward as she said this, but then looked up, first to Uranus, then Neptune. "Now is our turn to help you," she grinned, winking. "You showed Mako-chan," she looked to Uranus again, and pointed just behind her. Makoto stood in the frame of the looking glass, hands on hips, face set in a smile. "You showed her that she had to conquer her own fears. And Michiru," Venus turned, this time to Neptune, and to the reflection of Rei behind her, standing and watching with her arms folded, lips quirked. "your developed skills of intuition guided Rei-chan to strengthening her own senses. Domo arigatou, Michiru-san, Haruka-san."   
Venus bowed politely, then stepped away with a laugh, "Now, if you wouldn't mind busting us out of here, we need to catch up to Sailor Moon!" And with that, she vanished into the blanket of blackness around them, a spaceless void within the mirrors, empty.   
Uranus looked at Neptune. "Oy, Neptune. What do you say we break out of this dream?" She hefted the Space Sword meaningfully, smiling.   
Neptune didn't need to say anything. She lifted the Aqua Mirror, returning Uranus' smile. It seemed a little odd, leaving her dream life. A beloved violinist. But then, what kind of life would it be without Haruka?   
"Space Sword...Blaster!"   
"Submarine...Reflection!"   
And the darkness lit up with the light of their energy, sending the world bursting out around them.   


Uranus felt herself fall onto the ground, her chin striking the floor hard, jarring. For a moment, sparkles danced in her eyes, and a sensation of vertigo kept her from moving. But as the world stilled, she managed to focus, and saw a length of aquamarine hair just before her face. Mouth still not working quite yet, she reached up, twining fingers in the waves, trying to tug on it, to see if she could get her partner to move, to show a sign of life.   
"Nep...Nept...."   
Rather than a vocal response, Neptune stirred, letting out a soft groan as she rolled onto her stomach, pushing herself up. Breathing hard, she looked down and over, to see Uranus's hand in her hair. "I thought...I told you..." she managed a smile, "...that this wasn't a good time, Uranus...." she removed Uranus' hand, and clasped it, a little bit of crazy relief shining in her eyes. "The others are here, too. Sit up. Come on," she pushed herself back to her knees, then helped Uranus to sit up dizzily. Mars was laying a length away from them, black hair spilled out across the floor. Venus had tumbled out of her mirror, ankles still hanging within the broken cage as she lay on her side, eyes closed. Beyond them, head visible from around the corner, Jupiter was on her back, eyes open, and she was stirring, trying to push herself up. She turned her head and saw Neptune help Uranus to her feet.   
"Hey, mind giving us a hand, too?" she laughed weakly, then managed to get herself up. "Better wake up Venus. She sleeps like a rock."   
The two Outers separated, shaking the sleeping Inners awake, their eyes opening slowly, focusing. "We're all right. Arigatou. Wake up, we need to get moving...." they whispered, urging. Hurry, hurry, they had to hurry....   
Uranus released Venus as she stabilized on her feet, Jupiter stepping carefully over the broken shards of glass on the ground. Each cage had shattered, but the maze was intact, and dozens of reflections looked back at them from all angles as they regrouped. Mars nodded as she leaned up against Neptune, touching a slight gash on her cheek, bits of blood dripping out. A random scratch from a bit of glass. "Neptune," Venus asked as Mars pushed herself away from the sea senshi's help, "do you think your mirror will be any good in here?"   
"We'll see," Neptune decided as she drew the mirror out of its subspace pocket. The graceful curve of the handle fit with familiar comfort in her palm, and she saw herself reflected back in the polished surface. Ripples formed in the glass, pooling outward in concentric rings, moving further away from the center. But even as this magic was being worked, a small feeling of warning alerted Neptune, even as it reached Mars.   
"Get down!" They called in one voice, giving only enough warning for the other three to look at them in surprise. There was the sound of glass shearing, of explosion.   
And the maze blasted apart around them in fury.   
  


The world was full of color, whirling like petals on the breeze.   
Strains of music filled the hall, echoing out of a corner where minstrels played on lutes and harps. Rich velvets, brocades and embroideries skirted in and out of the lines of the dance, as partners exchanged, accepted hands, and moved in stately fashion along the avenues of their own steps. Warmth poured across the smooth stones of the floor, warmth and light from a great fireplace, blazing in the hall's far end. Warmth from the candles high on the iron chandelier above the dancers, warmth from the candelabras in the shadowy corners, not allowing any darkness. This was a glowing land, and this castle its heart. A king of vast fairness and strength, and a queen who sat beside him of unmatched beauty. A flower who had not yet begun to wilt.   
A graceful hand was placed within the grip of a handsome knight. Setsuna knew the steps, the pattern that went unchanging to this dance. A gown of red gossamer turned out like petals as she came to the end of the row, exchanging partners again. Across from her, the one she began her dance with. Dark hair, black and cut around his face so that his ocean blue eyes looked wide and deep. So perfect...so familiar....   
"You look sad, Lady," her knight commented as they drew their dance to a close. The final strains died away into the laughter of people, and the sounds of maids bringing food from the kitchen. The smell of roast mutton and beef mingled with that of wine and ale and bread. They were good smells, homey and comforting. "Perhaps I could have your name?"   
It would have seemed improper for her to hold him, lean her head against him. In this era, in this place, such things in public would seem so very improper. She reached up to brush a lock of hair from her face, but her fingers stilled as they reached her bare shoulder. No, today she had worn her hair up, to look beautiful and elegant in a way she was unaccustomed to. She was so glad that she had. Her fair knight had rescued her from the pain of talking to...her mind wandered, groping for the name. That was a person she knew. She should remember that name. Well, it wasn't important...not really. That face was only the elder sister of her friend. A friend! At so long last, the Guardian of Time had a friend! But where? Setsuna glanced around at the laughing faces. No, she couldn't see...couldn't see.... Her mind struggled with the name. Morgan...yes, Morgan! That was her name! Of course. And this...this was Lancelot. And the king, yes, that was little Arthur all grown up, with his bride beside him. Yes, she remembered this...all of this!   
"I'm sorry. Lady Setsuna Meioh."   
"Tintagel? Arthur spoke of you. You lived there when he was a baby."   
"Yes," Setsuna replied, distantly. Something tugged at her mind, and she reached out with her senses, trying to identify it. But she felt no warping of time. She was here...but perhaps that was it...? How can she remember a thing still happening? Setsuna shook her head in confusion. No, no, she was here. This was her life, her life away from the Gate, even for just a little while....   
Music drifted around them again, falling down note by note as the dancers took to twirling again, skirts swishing and boots clattering against the stones of the floor. Warm light made her skin glow, and the oddness people saw in her appearance vanished in ethereal beauty. Heaven held a sense of wonder, and this was her heaven. It was easy to sink into this reality, a happy time when she could for a moment forget anything that lay in the mists.   
"I've never been to Tintagel," Lancelot continued, and the voice filled her ears with low melody, rich as chocolate. He seemed faintly distant, as though thinking of other places than where he was. But his kindness in rescuing her was not lost on Setsuna. She was so alone. So lonely. It would be easy, really. So many of the legends...she knew the legends...so many spoke of sorceresses stealing away knights they loved. How easy, to just spirit him away....   
But then the strings from the minstrels faded as the song ended. Had it really been that long they had danced? Yes, she was on the other side of the floor. And now he was kissing her hand in parting. "My lady," he bowed, then kissed her hand. "Now that you have been safely rescued from the wicked dragon, I must return to Arthur. Forgive me, my lady."   
"Forgiven," she allowed, curtsying as was proper and right for a lady of her station.   
Already he was obscured by the milling crowd of dancers. A memory surfaced, and she touched her hair, feeling the soft petals of a red rose in her hair. "Oh yes, I remember...." she murmured. "Morgawse. Never did like her. And you gave me this, when you told me your name...." She looked at the direction he had retreated in and felt dizzy, holding the bloom in her hands, delicate fingers cupping the petals. Why not? Why not make this her dream? Why not change history? Was she not allowed to step in and ensure the proper flow of events? It would be easy, to snatch him away, to create a life simply as Setsuna Meioh, to forget everything outside this lifetime....   
"You know that's not your destiny, Setsuna," a soft voice told her from behind. It was familiar and not. And it angered her, forcing her to crush the rose in her fingers. How long had she been alone? Was it not allowed for her to have even a moment's happiness? A lifetime's? Everyone loved. Everyone had loves. Everyone but the perfect, peerless statue that was the Guardian of Time.   
"Leave me be, Viviane."   
Setsuna turned coldly, and the crushed flower fell around her, laying on the folds of her satin skirt. The girl she faced was not the girl she knew. No, Viviane...the Viviane Setsuna knew would be teary eyed and frightened of such a big place, with so many people. No, it was too soon for Viviane to stand on her own. Then why did she face her so calmly?   
No one saw her but Setsuna. They walked around her, laughing and not seeing the girl in the black robes. Not seeing the blue eyed girl with the long white hair, who held her hands clasped before her tranquilly. Viviane tried to smile at Setsuna. "Don't be upset, Setsuna. This place must be very special to you, for you to want to come back here. But we need you now," Viviane said, and the aura around her swirled and eddied. For a moment, Setsuna saw another face overlaid on the familiar one, with the same blue eyes, just slightly downturned and sad. "I know you see me as someone else," Viviane continued, biting her lip nervously. "I know you don't want to leave. But if you don't, we won't be able to help anyone. You have friends with us, too. A family with us, too," Viviane smiled and reached out with a hand. "Don't you remember us?"   
"I remember the Talismans, and I remember them becoming the key to awaken the light of destruction. I remember the death. I do not want to go back to that. I want to live in the present. I want to live here!"   
"Here is not the present. The present is with us!" Viviane's face altered again, blurring. The other face, with the sad eyes becoming determined. Viviane always had been stubborn, in her own odd way. "The present is with Chibiusa-chan, Setsuna! With Hotaru-chan! Don't you care about them? You always want to protect the little ones. We need you!" Viviane called to her, and the space around her became distorted, as though focused though a liquid lens, refracting. A new girl, with short hair. A familiar girl, who Setsuna remembered from so very long ago. She remembered discussing...temporal mechanics? Those Mercurians were always messing with trying to figure things out...Mercurians? Mercury? What did that have to do with anything? That place was a dead hulk, burned away with the sun's heat.   
"The present is with our Princess!"   
"The Princess has been dead for a thousand years!"   
"She is alive and fighting now, and needs her soldiers to help her!" Viviane cried in return, reaching out with a hand. "Setsuna! Give me your hand and break out of this dream! It's an illusion! This place vanished in the mist centuries ago! Wake up, Setsuna! Wake up! Onegai!"   
"No. You're not real.... This...this place is real!"   
"Look at me and see me without seeing the past, Setsuna!"   
A pair of crimson eyes looked away from the happy people around her, and focused on the shifting form of Viviane. Blue light radiated from her as she reached outward, as though held back and away. But the vertigo that surrounded her was growing still, the watery illusion turning to ice. And it was not Viviane who pleaded with her.   
"We are reborn," the girl smiled, and once again reached out.   
And this time, Setsuna clasped it.   


Pluto's eyes opened, and she slid her hand to the side, reaching out to clasp her Timestaff from where it had clattered to the ground. She shifted, straightening herself out and hearing high pitched crunching as glass moved underneath her. Gasping breathing reached her ears, and she saw Mercury, curled up on the floor across the room from her. "Mercury?"   
"Pluto...?"   
Sailor Pluto stood, and leaned on her staff for balance as she regained her footing. The waves of dizziness passed quickly, and she knelt down to help Mercury sit up. The smaller girl grabbed her arm for support a moment, then the spinning began to slow for her as well.   
"Domo arigatou, Mercury," Pluto said, and the younger senshi managed a smile, nodding.   
"You gave me strength before," she told her as Pluto lent her a hand up. "When I thought I was weak. When Fish-eye..." she stood fully, and looked up into the taller woman's face. "tried to kill me. We're alike, Pluto, in some ways. Maybe that's why I could get to you."   
"That still doesn't make complete sense. That you weren't affected by whatever spell that was," Pluto told her in a half question. But now that they were both on their feet again, she hefted the Timestaff, looking around for any approaching enemies.   
"I think it was the same for the others. We each had to face our nightmares. Yume is smart, learning from a past mistake. It's much harder to escape from a pleasant dream than from a nightmare. A nightmare is easy to spot. A good dream is something you don't want to leave."   
Pluto caught a tone in Mercury's voice, and saw that she had called her visor out of its pocket dimension. Bits of light in numerical form reflected across the surface, backwards, so that Mercury could read it. Pluto hadn't lived for centuries, without learning how to observe people's behavior and tones. With a tone of factuality, she stated, "You know something."   
"Hai," Mercury nodded, focusing her attention. "Yume learned from a mistake that another made. She should have no information on such a matter. In that case, I believe it is reasonable to present the hypothesis that our enemy is-"   
Something shifted in the space around them, a shift in the mechanics of the glass shrouded corridor. "Mercury!" Pluto raced forward, sending both herself and Mercury tumbling to the floor.   
A high pitched vibration rang out, and the glass exploded in the air around them.   
  


  
Tomoe Hotaru straightened herself out, standing and shivering as she picked up her case. The grip of her leather bag fit smoothly into her hand, though her fingers flexed awkwardly, and her arm moved with a slight mechanical squeal. Poppa would be working on the newer parts, she was sure. And under the cloth of her sleeves, no one could see the bits of metal and wire woven into the fabric of her muscle tissue. Under the black tights she wore, no one could see how the backs of her knees were scarred, and how her legs were laced with burn scars, puckered and red. Hotaru hated the scars. How could anyone be pretty with such scars? They were ugly, and in the succession of that thought, so was she.   
Walking out of the school yard, she kept her head down, the sharp cut of her hair slanting forward as her violet eyes to her feet. This was her best illusion, keeping her hidden and separate from the world, where she was safe. Her hair was a black curtain, shrouding her from prying eyes. Around her she heard people talking, brushing by the invisibility of the small girl. Laughing and shouting to each other as they headed home. Misery. Every day, she walked along this gauntlet, hearing such happiness in the laughter around her. It felt better to be home, where it was safe. Not that anything was safe. Not anymore. Not with Poppa the way he was....   
She stepped though a puddle, and the ripples flowed outward from her heel, spreading the water further onto the cement. Hotaru walked quietly, and without looking right or left. She knew the path she took, though it became more difficult every day. So much more difficult...without...new...parts...Poppa....   
Hotaru fell, her world becoming a wave of vertigo. The sky became a swirl of grey and white, and she heard the clatter of her pens and notebooks as they clattered out across the ground. Dizzily, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, rubbing them as though this would clear them of the tunneling in her vision. It was a heavy feeling, as though the world pressed in on her from all sides. But then, there was nothing else to do. Reach out, pick up the mess she made with her own weakness. Then stand, and continue. That was life. Just...continuing.   
The darkness focused on a pencase at her knee, and according to the philosophy of continuation, she reached out for it, intending to pick it up. But as her fingers drew close to the metal container, a foot slammed in her way, heavily stepping down. Not quite to her destination, her fingers stilled, and she heard, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Hotaru." The words were sarcastic, and the voice a sneer. A second voice joined the first, just as sharp.   
"Shall we help you pick them up?"   
Not looking at their faces, Hotaru saw the foot withdraw, and felt a body loom over hers, leering downward. The darkness around her drew down heavily, and narrowed until the two girls above her seemed so far away. So insignificant. And so utterly...nothing. They were nothing. Hotaru almost laughed. Petty people were nothing. They were worthless. No minds, nothing. No souls, nothing. It wouldn't be so bad to kill Nothing, would it? Nothing lost, nothing to miss.... But...people like that were to be pitied, weren't they?   
Hotaru heard a squealing sound, harsh and grating. It was metallic, though she was sure it was not her own joints. Far away, she knew she had picked up that penholder, and crushed it in her fingers. Hotaru had never been very strong. Not in this bloodless body she wore.   
She continued.   
She picked up her things, the girls leaving as they met with ice cold eyes. Eyes that did not seem like the familiar, easily taunted Hotaru's. These were sinister, though on the same body. And even Nothing had to fear eyes like that. So she stood, and the folds of plaid green skirt fell around her knees. Mugen Institute, Poppa's Infinity College....   
"You can't escape your destiny," words came, mocking, from ahead of her. In a voice that was hers, but so much older and full of hate. Her head down, she raised her eyes to see herself, or a reflection of herself. Cruel eyes, arms folded over her chest. Hair infinitely long, streaming out in every direction. Hotaru should know her. This was Hotaru. But not. The girl struggled to remember the name of the woman above her, smiling with a kind of knowledge and subtle carelessness. Superiority. To this one, it was Hotaru that was a Nothing.   
"You could have everything, if you just let yourself hate them."   
Hotaru looked away, beyond the woman. And the scenery of her familiar path home blurred and vanished into a maze of mirrors, the glass reflecting the image of the woman, but not of Hotaru. "I'm real," her opponent continued. "see? These mirrors reflect the soul. The true soul. Wouldn't it be easy, chibi-chan, if you just let me in? I could make you so much stronger...."   
The face of the woman grew sharper, less human, as a black star formed on her forehead, and her eyes maniacal as she drew closer. That face...something...mirrors...omega? Omega. Yes. That sounded...familiar, somehow. "Mistress 9?"   
She paused for a moment at her name, then the smile twisted up harshly. The mirrors grew bright, the panes stinging Hotaru's eyes as she backed away, her case falling from her grip. There was something...something she should do...she could fight. Fight? Hotaru? Little Hotaru, who fainted so easily and had no strength? Fight? She's kind of creepy. She always has that gloomy expression.... Everyone says she's weird. Of course she is. Her father is that strange Professor. Does she have any friends?   
Hotaru felt the shadow of Mistress 9 on her, darkening the brightness. Sharp fingers dug into her throat, and her windpipe narrowed, the air slowing as nails drew blood from her skin's surface. Every nerve glowed, bitingly harsh.   
Does she have any friends?   
"Poppa...."   
Hotaru felt herself lifted from the ground, her feet growing lighter as her weight shifted into the arms of Mistress 9. "It'd be easier if you just died," she heard, quietly. Almost kindly. Death...no, Hotaru wasn't afraid of death. That was strange. People should fear death, shouldn't they? Hotaru closed her eyes, resting them. Just for a little while....   
Does she have any friends?   
_ "I made this at school. I'd like to give it to you, Hotaru. The theme for this week is, 'Let's give a present to someone special.' I kinda thought it might be neat to give it to Hotaru as a symbol of friendship...."_   
She remembered...two girls, coming to bring her the younger one's present...a cup. A strange little cup. With buttons and plastic jewels to make it colorful. And pasted on wings. "Chibiusa-chan?"   
Her feet left the floor, and once again blackness hedged her vision. Fight...something...fight...how...? Faces flickered as the hands on her neck tightened. No, this wasn't right. Mistress 9 was dead, wasn't she? How? Someone fought her. Hotaru gripped the wrists of the woman holding her, struggling weakly as her world darkened.   
"Chibiusa-chan!"   
A new face, looking at her oddly, smiling as she was defeated in their game. "Haruka-papa!"   
Another new face, laughing as she helped her get dressed as a little girl. There you go, this one said, straightening the dress. "Michiru-mama!"   
A third face, with eyes full of age. Handing her a pencil and showing her kanji. Being patient as the lead marked the paper. "Setsuna-mama!"   
Someone new.   
Purple eyes, just like hers. Not anyone she should know. No, a stranger's smiling face, oddly familiar. Someone she should know. Someone new. Her eyes fluttered open. The stirring of memory gained momentum. "_Onee-san!_"   


_ Onee-san!_   
Sitting on the ledge of her bed, Kami listened, her head rising as the call echoed vibrantly around her. She stood, turning around the unfamiliar confines of her room, almost as though to search for the source of the silent sound.   
The drapes of her window were pulled back, the lace letting in traceries of patterned light onto the full carpet under her slippers. The shadows of sunset dappled her face and the length of her hair, glowing golden, glowing divine. Kami placed fingers to her lips thoughtfully, turning and looking at the length of herself in the oval mirror. She stood tall, despite her frustration with herself, and the new, tingling worry at the silent whisper of her name. Shafts of light fell around her, haloing her body in golden light, that shifted though the branches of the tree outside. Ordinary beauty, extraordinarily presented.   
"_Hotaru-chan?_" 

  
_ Hotaru-chan?_   
Breathlessly, Hotaru clawed at the hands on her throat. A voice. She heard a voice calling. Calling back to her. Softly, almost silently. In the mirrors beyond the slash of Mistress 9's hair, she could see a shrouded reflection, pale and ghostly. In it stood the final face, fingers to her lips in wonder, eyes not seeing as Hotaru saw. Puzzlement made her look, then turn, her bewilderment clear though the image on the glass. Then again, pale lavender eyes looked at her through the mirror.   
Blackness was overwhelming.   
"If you wish to be part of me, then so be it. My piece of chaos you shall be!" Again, she gripped the wrists pinning her to the mirror, but now her eyes were open, and the light of a symbol shone on her forehead, gleaming amethyst under hair that fluttered wildly around her face. Now, for the first time, the woman noticed Hotaru as something more than Nothing. The hateful eyes widened, a moment too late. "And I will surpass you and all you stand for!"   
The symbol faded, only to be replaced with a single purple stone. And from her white gloved hands, a dissolved mist that coiled around her. A scream lingered in the air, though not from the throat of Saturn. Her feet touched the ground again, tapping softly as she tried to gain her breath back. Such a nightmare. That face haunted her. Such a nightmare, to face again the terror of her life. On her knees, Saturn breathed.   
And then she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, and saw feet, then knees before her.   
"Are you all right?" A worried voice asked, and she looked up to see the one they had all come for.   
Yume, distant blue eyes full of concern, searching her face.   
"Are you okay? Tomoe-san?"   
Sailor Saturn blinked with disbelieving eyes, first at Yume, then again as she took in the new room around her. A ring of mirrors, some shattered and multiplied in their reflections. Against the distant end of the ring, a tall throne, sweeping and high backed, regal and eerily familiar.   
"Here," Yume was saying, taking Saturn's hand and helping her up. "Can you stand? I thought your mind would be lost. She held you in her grip for so long." Yume peered closer at Saturn's neck, blinking. "Ah, good. No physical repercussions, not yet." A small smile flitted on her face, a look of relief and happiness.   
Yume squeezed Saturn's hands, then released them with a smile, folding her arms around herself out of habitual motion. Her shoulders rounded, drawing her in on herself as she did so, making her smaller. Though Yume was taller than Hotaru, it almost appeared as though Saturn was larger. Yume shifted back slightly, her heels clomping hollowly as she shifted her weight. Yume's face shifted between worry, curiosity, and a tentative smile.   
"Why," Saturn began slowly, touching her neck and feeling bruises that did not exist. "why did you try to kill me?"   
As though slapped, Yume retreated a step, paling and biting a lip. "Gomen. Gomen, Tomoe-san. No, you misunderstand. You two young ones. Children shouldn't have to suffer...." Yume reached out with a hand pleadingly, consolingly. "I made it different for you. I thought...I thought you were like me. I wanted to be sure. Tomoe-san, that happened to you too, didn't it? All those people, laughing at you. Just because we're freakish. Kutsu always laughed at me. I don't want to hurt people who have been hurt like me. I've been a freak since I was little. I thought that if you were like me, then I could protect you." She folded her hands together, wringing them slightly in agitation and thought. Stupid, freakish Yume, who finally was strong enough to fight for herself. "Was that stupid of me again?"   
Sailor Saturn stood and looked at the girl across from her. She was tattered, her fine green dress worn from battling with the senshi, and from constant wear. She tottered in her heels, and her hair clung around her face, as though wishing to hide it. She was thin. So very, very thin. Frail. Yes, frail. White skin turning transclusecent, veins lacy beneath the surface. There were bruises on her arm and her leg, sign she had not escaped her battles completely without harm. A shoulder was red and raw. Small things, not really noticed in the flurry of motions in battle. Small things too easily overlooked. And mostly, Saturn looked at her eyes. They were blue, faraway eyes, and though she was looking down slightly, they were the eyes of a girl far younger. Too wide, too frightened. Hotaru wasn't a mother, but ever nerve in her screamed to wrap her arms around Yume, to tell her it would be all right, and they would go home, and have tea, and laugh and everything would be fine, just fine.   
"Yume-chan," Saturn said, reaching out with a hand tentatively. She watched Yume's eyes widen fractionally at the gesture. Saturn smiled, leaning forward and reaching out. Don't let her drop down into the silence again. Don't let her go. Take her hand, get her out of the maze. If she could get her out of the maze, then she'd be free. Somehow, that would be all it took. Just get her to walk away. Just walk away. Whatever it was that made her this way, it was here. She could feel it. Cold against her skin. "Would you like to come home with me? Michiru-mama makes really good soba noodles. They're my favorite. We were going to have some tonight. Are you hungry, Yume-chan?"   
Hungry? Yume? Wasn't she always? Wasn't that her problem? But soba noodles.... Yume did like soba noodles. Her favorite was tempura though, but soba was always good. No, no, this was silly. Soba noodles? Michiru-mama? That was the Neptune one.... Yume glanced beyond Sailor Saturn, and saw the images in a distant mirror. Within it, an elegant Kaioh Michiru was waving good bye to a techie in her dream, laughing as she headed down towards her ride to some extravagant affair. No, Michiru wasn't going to be making soba noodles. Not unless Yume let her out.   
"Michiru-mama!" Saturn cried as she followed Yume's gaze. In horror, her eyes swung around to another mirror, this time the image of a crowd of people at a raceway. Screaming fans, their sounds silent within the soundproof glass. Wildly, she looked again, this time seeing a court in full splendor, ladies whirling though the images of men and women dancing.   
"They're happy there, Tomoe-san," Yume managed, her voice brittle, trying to explain what was being seen. "They're in their dreams. No one will hurt them there."   
"Why!"   
"They never hurt me. But..." Yume looked away, and as her face hardened, Saturn began to see the one she had faced at Chibiusa's school. A Yume who was fighting for vengeance, on behalf of herself. And outrage, for those like her. But why the senshi? Lock them within good dreams? All but Hotaru, since Yume correctly surmised she had been though similar situations. Something here didn't fit. Something didn't fit at all. The coldness in her face was returning slowly, and Saturn tried to break though the forming ice.   
"Yume-chan," she began, letting her voice take a harder edge. It was effective, and Yume looked at her again. "I want you to-"   
A soft sound began to ripple though the room, like the lapping of moonlit waves at night. It vibrated gently, growing in low pitch until enough to distract both Sailor Saturn and Yume. Turning, they saw a hand emerge though a crystal clear pane of glass, then a face, slipping though the passage into the ring of mirrors. White wings extended out as Eternal Sailor Moon stepped though the mirror, stumbling a half step as she entered the room, looking around uncertainly. Recognition fixed her eyes as she saw Saturn.   
"Stop right there! For what you have done to my daughter...."   
"Sailor Moon! No!"   
_"I will never forgive you!"_   
Yume was gone, her eyes as cold as the empty sky. "Tomoe-san," she said with an elusive frostiness, "you may leave now, or else chose your side." Sharply, she looked at Saturn. "And I know that if you do not leave, then it is her side you will chose. So leave, or join her."   
"Yume...."   
She made a small sound of disgust, then stepped away, approaching the dais and the throne there. Lifting a hand, a stream of cards fluttered off the armrest, lighting to her hand with familiar ease. She turned. Flip. Flip....   
"You, Tsukino Usagi, are not like the others. You were always loved. You have a perfect family. You have a perfect boyfriend. You have your perfect little group of adoring friends. Everybody likes Tsukino Usagi. She's all light and happiness and sugar. The happy little heroine, who's just so goddamned perfect. Why, you'll even have the whole planet kissing your dainty little feet someday, won't you? Nobody thinks Tsukino Usagi is a freak. Everything just works itself out for you just fine and dandy doesn't it? Perfect. Everything...just...perfect!" Her voice grew hysterical as she continued, until her words hit the breaking point. She stood clearly before the throne, facing them and looking down, hands still on the cards, tightly crushing them between strained fingers.   
But behind her, a shadow moved, rustling so softly that it could barely be heard though Yume's words. The back of the throne was reflected, on this side empty, on the other....   
On the other....   


Sailor Moon watched the words fall from Yume's lips painfully. They were true, to a point. She had a happy life. And she fought to keep it that way. It hurt, hearing it said the way Yume said it. Didn't everyone want a happy life? Darkness fluttered around her, cloaking bare shoulders. And then she heard Saturn draw a sharp breath. Momentarily, her gaze shifted, and a new form could be seen just behind Yume. Familiar. Lengths of black hair, a silhouette in the dim light.   
Catlike eyes.   
A single word came to a strangled scream, an impossible scream. _"Nehelenia!"_   


Yume lifted a card in the air, and the two senshi moved into action.   
As Saturn lifted her hand, she summoned the Silence Glaive, swinging it to bear. The image of a demon was revealed against the polished metal as Yume turned the card. But Sailor Moon had already brought the Eternal Rod up and around. "Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!"   
All the world became glass.   
Cutting, biting glass that shattered in the explosion, bursting out and surrounding Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn.   
And then there was a light, which sent them blind, and each could feel their bodies lift into the air, and fall hard against the ground.   
  
  


*******************   


I told you there was a major anime element in here....waaaaay back in the recap from the previous two stories? lol. Yes, the anime element is the idea of Nehelenia returning. It doesn't happen at all in the manga, and is exclusive to the Stars anime. Since Kami tends to deal so much with dreams, I thought it best to challenge the Nehelenia idea. And since '_Bloom of the Mountain Cherry_' was supposed to be after SS....   
On a more practical note, the dream sequences for Michiru and Setsuna. Michiru's dream was to become a violinist, so that's the dream Yume gave her. Setsuna's is probably confusing to most. ^^; You see so little of Pluto's life in anime and manga. I wasn't sure exactly what to do with her. I know she wants to be a fashion designer, but it seemed a little...wrong for the fic. And I wanted to keep things in the past, as though they hadn't happened yet. (ie, Haruka and Michiru never having met....) So I was a bit restricted. And I wanted to break the pattern a little. Long, long ago, (my first fanfic!) I wrote '_Mists of Time._' A blend of Setsuna growing up and one of my favorite mythologies, King Arthur. So, I took a scene out of '_Mists_' and re-vamped it for '_Golden Rule._' I hope it wasn't confusing to anyone. It was just supposed to be a happy time, before she knew any of the modern-day senshi. Thus harder for her to pull away from it.   
And in both Haruka and Michiru's scenes, they hear words. ('...like saving the world from destruction!' and, '...when I realized you were the one...I was happy....') Those were taken out of the S season anime episode that shows the flashback when they met. I've got the Pioneer dvd of that episode, so that's the translation I used.   
And finally, Hotaru's dream sequence. That was a scene from the manga, when she crushed the metal pen holder. You know, it took me forever to think of using that? o.O That should have been so obvious, it was so similar to what happened to Yume. I was coming up with all kinds of weird dream sequence ideas....o.O oro.... Oh well. Also, if you're not totally familiar with the manga, in the S story arc, Hotaru's father uses mechanical parts to keep Hotaru alive after the accident when she was little. She was, in a way, a cyborg.   
Til next time.   
Ja ne!   
-Queen   



	8. Chapter 6- A Fair Sacrifice for Peace

The GoLden Rule   


_Heaven holds a sense of wonder_   
_And I wanted to believe that I'd get caught up_   
_When the rage in me subsides...._   
-Delerium, Karma   
  
  
  
  


Chapter 6: A Fair Sacrifice for Peace 

  
Placing her hands to the mirror's surface did no good. It remained, as mirrors were apt to be, still and reflective. Nothing shifted in a mirror, save what it revealed of the image on the surface of it. Yellowed light, the color of old paper, faded, hung in the room, and was thusly refracted in the looking glass. Kami's fingertips touched only stillness.   
_ But I heard her...._   
She stepped away, running her fingers over the rim of polished wood, and let her hands fall to her sides as she contemplated the silhouette she made in the shadows.   
_ And she needs me...._   
Her little slippered feet made little sound against the padded carpeting, uncrushed from lack of use. A fresh, unused room, only freshly occupied. Kami made a nervous gesture, clasping her hands together. Not quite wringing them, but lacing her fingers together as though to support herself. Biting her lip, she lifted her hands to her mouth. Had she worn her Chrysanthemum Rain, her sleeve would have delicately covered her lips in a ladylike gesture of thoughtful shyness. But though her old Heian gown had accompanied her to this new era, it now hung in plastic covering in her closet, to keep away the dust that time could accumulate. Instead, the delicacy relied on motion and grace, rather than elaborate layers of damask and silk.   
_I have descended into a haze, which grows dark as I wander in my own sorrows. I am my own foolishness. Hotaru-chan needs me. Kanashimi-chan needs me. Usagi-sama needs me. Yet I am here. I sit and I do nothing. I sit and I do nothing, because I trap myself within my own nightmares!_   
Her fingers slipped away from her lips, and trailed across her throat, where a thin silver chain hung. Blinking, she recognized the jewelry, the 'dreamcatcher' that Mamoru had given her as a 'birthday present.' A faint smile formed at the memory, of the cake and the pictures. The album Hotaru gave her sat open on her desk, Pictures dated and labeled, ready to be slipped neatly into plastic cases, to keep them forever. The memories they represented. Such things were uncommon to Kami, but she liked them nonetheless. The webbing within the silver ring glittered, catching bits of color, lavender and black, as light reflected in warped dimensions from its surface.   
Hotaru and Kami had sat, each facing their own direction, kneeling in identical positions. Two powers, linked and the same, branching. Little death, sleep. Big sleep, death. The two were linked. Eyes closed, powers held apart by the width of a hair. Destruction, death, rebirth. A dream of a new life, and then destruction again. Such was life, often fleeting, often cruel. But as beautiful and graceful as a falling sakura blossom. And did not people go to watch the sakura fall? 

_"The beautiful mind is my home_   
_Within the heart of someone who sees dreams_   
_Inside a vacant heart whose hope is lost_   
_My form will end up disappearing...."_

  


She did not sing the words as Hotaru had, nor did she kneel or sing them for anyone but herself. They fell lightly from her mouth, tripping out, nothing more than a whisper in the silent room. The dreamcatcher caught at her fingertips, still uncallused from lack of practice with the koto. But she remembered the strains, and the way to pluck at the silken strings.   


_"Because of that, please have dreams_   
_I will continue to see your beautiful dreams...."_

__

Her fingers tightened on the webbing of silver, and she looked again at the mirror from her place before the window. The traceries of lace from her curtains spilled out across the floor in light and shadow from her feet. They stretched across the room, overlapping the mirror, and the perfectly still surface it reflected. But the light danced, and the images in the mirror shifted with it. A petal floated within the glass, and the pale lavender eyes did not miss its presence. Why do we suffer so in the world? Just regard life as the short bloom of the mountain cherry....   
_Crystal._   
_ Mercury Crystal Power.... Venus Crystal Power.... These are the words they said when they went to fight. And my own words failed me. Why? I remember the tale of their power. Hotaru-chan, Setsuna-san...they told me. The sources of their power, crystals. I remember...the first time I wore that uniform. Something hot. Like a star. Here, in my chest, where this pendant lies now. That warmth is gone from me right now. I do not feel it. Yet I feel its presence. It is there, waiting. Deep within my heart, it lies in wait for me to understand it._   
_Kanashimi-chan, even in your despair, you did not lose your grasp of it. It is the source of your power. What, then, is mine? Not the same as yours. Iie, not even the same as Saturn's. My power...._   
She unfolded her hands from around the dreamcatcher, looking at the lines of her hands, the tracks that curved and crossed as she bent her palms and fingers. Simple, clean lines, where her hands flexed and turned lithely. She pressed her fingertips together, as though about to sit and pray, to hope for enlightenment, or perhaps epiphany. But the faint smile on her face showed that she already had figured out her own mind.   
_...my power is simpler than that...._   
The mirror no longer reflected anywhere real. Light reached surreal brightness, too sharp and staccato for reality. It whitewashed the room. _Sakura _fell, and the mirror filled with mist, whorling and brushing against the inner glass in a display of dizzying ability.   
Lightly, she lifted her fingertips to the air, holding them over her head. Warmth began to build within her, the faint stirrings of the star in her heart. It began to glow, illuminating her, and brilliant light shimmered in the pale violet eyes. And in the silence around her, she let out a single cry.   
_"Weaver Dream Power.... Make-up!"_   
  
The star became a nova.   
Lightness filled her, and she felt mist brush past her body as the world became another place, the world within the mirror. This was reality for her as her arm moved downward, her hand tracing a curve in the air, light marking its path. Down, descending, she floated into the energy, nerves glowing divine. Layers of soft fabric clothed her, and she felt her uniform replace the dress she wore. The scalding sensation of her symbol died away, replaced by the smooth coolness of a stone, perfectly placed between her brows. And as she returned to the world, something filled her white gloved palm, and as she opened her eyes, she saw the ebony shaft of a naginata, the blade revealed and sharp, down pointed in her hand. 

In the mirror, she saw herself. Not quite the same as before. Now like the others. High white boots, the tops inverted. Two layers of skirt, though Saturn's dark on top, hers reversed, and light lavender. A star shaped pin, and long, immaculate white gloves.   
But her reflection was an illusion, barely overlaying the images within the oval mirror across from her. Faintly, her eyes narrowed as she watched the small play unfold silently.   
Yume spoke, her fingers tightly clutching the cards in her hands. Her face was contorted, confused and pained. Mirrors around her in a ring, and across from her stood Sailor Saturn and Sailor Moon. Shadows ghosted the place, casting darkness on the floor of the Hall of Mirrors. And through the silence, Dreamweaver saw a long shadow move, seated on the throne. It flowed, moving forward with the ease of a person who knew their place, and that place was Queen.   
Another motion, startled, from the senshi, as this new figure came to their attention.   
A scream from Yume, and a lifted card.   
It takes only two long steps to cross a room swiftly. And with instinct, the naginata moved forward, piercing the mirror, creating ripples as easily as it would in water. No breath was taken as Sailor Dreamweaver plunged into the ice cold mirror. As she descended again into the darkness, she summoned that small star in her heart, and lit the world of glass with its power.   


There was such happiness at the Moon Palace.   
Today, after all, was the day the new princess would be revealed. Tiny and delicate, with a tendency to cry easily when unfed, the baby Princess Serenity was robed in white lace, buried in colors of sunlight and clouds. Cries of congratulations greeted the happy Queen of the Moon as she proudly displayed her daughter to her court.   
In the shadows, Dreamweaver watched the images before her. They flowed like water, shifting and unfocused, as though the water were cloudy. The sweep of a back was before her, with black hair that fell in waves to her feet. A hand rested on the inside of a doorway, and a soft voice asked lowly, "Let me in, on this celebration!"   
Little girls with familiar faces turned in surprise, as the Queen drew her daughter into a closer embrace. Strangers who walked too easily in the darkness were people to be wary of. From her place behind, the shadow senshi continued to watch, and hear the intruder speak. "The biggest event on the Moon, and you forgot me?"   
The black shadow stretched forward as the figure stepped out of the darkness. Her beauty was obvious. Delicate features, beautiful features, with a gown that swept around her, making the illusion of her elaborate. But those same features were also too sharp. Rather than willowy, they were harsh and controlled, unnatural. The smile on her lips was cold rather than warm, and the eyes reflected only calculation, rather than kindness. The beauty of a statue. Perfect, unyielding, and stony.   
The leader of the young girls called out, "Tainting our holy place! Who are you?"   
"I live here too," came the easy reply. "I came from the deep Moon...."   
Again, she was challenged, this time by the tallest of the little girls. "You're lying! You don't live here!"   
The one in red pushed her way forward as the smallest clasped her hands together. "It's you, isn't it? Invading our Moon! Monstrosity of evil, spreading the darkness!"   
The baby princess now safely within the arms of young Venus, the Queen stepped forward, before the girls. "If you seek peace, I shall welcome you. But I can't let you bring evil and darkness."   
The reply was smooth, and the world around them seemed a haze of memory, floating on the darkened moonlight. "Queen...you need the darkness. Just lend me your hand. Welcome the darkness."   
Impulsively, the Mars princess attacked. "Freakish one! Vanish at once!"   
But the blazing light was only consumed by the pitch. "With light comes darkness. The dark calls the light...as the light calls upon the dark!"   
And the darkness spread out, cloaking the room as the onlookers staggered backward. With swiftness, the Queen drew her weapon, and light glittered from within the Silver Crystal.   
"I shall seal you away...in the darkness forever!"   
And the result of those words was a feeling of hate. Hate that burned so dark and deep, Dreamweaver felt it even though she did not live it. It pressed heavily against her, leaning against her mind.   
Shutting her eyes blocked the images from her mind. The curse that doomed the Princess to die before she sat upon her throne. The falling of the Silence Glaive, that sealed away the past forever. The eternity of being trapped within the mirror, mind, body, and soul.   
Nehelenia.   
The Queen of the Nether Moon, the dark that opposed the light, as part of her nature. It was a name Dreamweaver had only heard of, and had never seen. But undoubtedly, this was the woman whose eyes she saw through. These were the images that replayed over and over again for centuries of sleep, centuries to dream of revenge. Until the light was faded enough in eclipse to break though with all that hate, and to invade what was left of her memory.   
Dreamweaver opened her eyes, and found herself in a withered garden.   
Towers still rose overhead, but they were dark when they should have been light. This place was a reflection of the palace she had been in moments before. Shining and bright, this place was its mirror, but dark. Life turns to death, dreams to nightmares.   
The stones of the path were dark, and moss and mushrooms grew on the rocks. Orchids and roses had grown here once, but now were blown away to dust. Cherry trees were only sticks, their branches warped and clattering against each other emptily. There was a bitter scent in the air, the perfume of flowers gone black. An empty pool lay to her right hand, the lily pads brown and withered in the empty pond. Cattails were broken along the edge, bent from time. Beyond them, there was the Earth, rising in its blues and greens, clouded in white. Stars blanketed the sky beyond the shine of the planet. Quietly, in this ghastly silence, a tiny light floated wide. A firefly, with its golden glow, softly rising and falling on the currents of wind. It was joined by another, and another. Dreamweaver lifted a hand, and a solitary light settled shimmeringly on her hand. She was careful not to crush it. Fireflies die so easily. But despite the tiny dance of glows, there was little light to see by.   
Even the shadows did not distinguish themselves from each other.   
  
  
"You like my memories?"   
At the words, Dreamweaver turned around, lightly placing the end of her naginata to the ground and waiting. Her face reflected no emotion, but her eyes remained filled with quiet pity.   
"You're a new one," the dark queen continued. "and you walk in my mind. Your friends are lucky, because if you didn't come when you did, they would be quite dead."   
"My coming held you back, yes. But you over estimate your power."   
Nehelenia seemed unaffected by the announcement and smiled faintly, looking at Sailor Dreamweaver with disdain. "I am the forever beautiful Queen Nehelenia, of the Dead Moon." She gave a mock curtsy, sweeping the folds of her dress around her. Perfect manners intimidate those unaccustomed to them. But to one who spent a lifetime studying such ways, it made little impression on Dreamweaver. The spite in the motion was not lost on her.   
"You're terribly rude," Nehelenia informed her slyly as she returned to her full height. "I know how much you senshi enjoy your pretty introductions, and yet here I am, deprived of yours. I'd love to know who you are."   
_ My name...and I know who I am now...._   
"I am the soldier whose power is that of the Dream. For your crimes of hate, I will let you know only nightmares....I am the pretty sailor suited senshi, Sailor Dreamweaver! And I will never forgive you!"   
The smile broadened as Dreamweaver brought her naginata to bear.   
Yellow eyes were exotic, but lethal. They were uncaring, and did not reflect anything, save the faint gleam of metal that faced her. "Upstart powers are worth very little. Dreams? This is my dream," Nehelenia gestured with her long fingers. The dead garden and the dingy walls of the palace were encompassed in her motion, as though this were the whole world. "I exist to bring the darkness. The old Queen was a fool. Only a fool would not understand that light needs darkness to exist. And so I am condemned to live beyond the mirrors...."   
_ The old Queen a fool? For some reason, I find that difficult to believe. But there is no hint of lie in her words. She believes that. Then what is the difference? A subtle layer, something difficult to discern. This woman is intelligent, despite the evil she carries in her heart. The...evil she carries in her heart...._   
A hand was placed forward, palm outward, the sharp fingers displayed as darkness was summoned. Around her, light began to bend, the tiny waltzes from the fireflies extending into streams as the darkness summoned the light, then entrapped it within its abyss. It was a kaleidoscope of dying light. And it bent away, stretching, twisting.   
"You are wrong, to think so poorly of the Queen!" Dreamweaver called into the warping world. Though her mind did not think consciously to do so, she braced herself, using the naginata for leverage. Resisting the pull of the wild abyss. Of the reversed star, that drew in light rather than gave it. "It was your own mistake. Darkness needs the light even as light needs the dark. But the darkness you bring is not a dark night of the soul, which brings knowledge and understanding in the end. Yours is evil, tainted and corrupt. It is that which was sealed away, the perversion of what you should have been!"   
Sailor Dreamweaver said this, her voice rising as she fought the rising winds around her. _I will fight. She claims to be the ruler of dreams. But such is my realm, as well. Iie, I can stand against the nightmare of oblivion...to be forgotten...what a hideous nightmare...._   
Her heels slid against the ground, but from her came a soft glow. Not a glow of radiance. It was subtle, shifting, demure. Not a thing of epic power or energy. But a simple brightness that grew from the heat in her chest. The brightness of a star that glowed within, giving light, not taking it away.   
Around her, the world again stilled, growing soft. At her feet pooled clear stones, smooth and grey, lit as though by sunlight, though the stars above still shone deeply, with the light of heaven beyond them. _A nightmare is a thing of fright. But it also is a dream, and it also shows the way within. A nightmare can be more useful than a dream in this way. I remember once, when a demon chased me as a girl in a nightmare. A dream I had so long ago. So long did it take me to see...and when again I fought it, a Fury, in the underworld.... Once I ran in fear. The second time I turned with a knife in hand, and I fought back. It was a relevation, to understand that I could fight my fate. To understand that I am not helpless...._   
Two figures stretched out across the space in the garden, the coldness of a black star facing the warmth of a bright one. Two stars, opposing stances. Reflections of life and death. One grew in fury, raging as her power grew less and less effective against the other, who slowly stood tall, lifting her weapon to the air with a hand. The starlight glinted on the tip of the blade, gleaming pure silver, stark against the darkness of the long grip.   
"You have been made to suffer, and have in turn given pain to others. That I cannot allow. For such a sin, I cannot forgive you."   
There was a scream of rage as the efforts ceased, and Nehelenia bought her hands around, darkness of pitch black fuming in waves of cold heat. Ripples of air ghosted though the garden, and the floating fireflies died away to nothing.   
_ The words will come._   
"Nightmare...."   
Light glistened off the tip of the naginata, high in the air. With calm control, Dreamweaver swept it downward, letting it touch the ground with a soft tap.   
"Relevation."   
There was no sound.   
Until the blackness within Nehelenia's hands stilled, and she saw her eyes narrow and a smile curve lightly on her red lips. "Your words do nothing to...me...."   
_Why must this be my power?_   
"Gomen nasai..." Dreamweaver said softly, bowing her head and feeling warm tears fall onto her cheeks. "Oh, gomen, gomen...nasai..."   
She could not bring her eyes up. But painfully, she forced herself to. This was her action. Her own power, at its fearsome end. Going from one mind to another, as she had on that one night in the hospital...going into one mind, to another, between Kanashimi-chan and Usagi-sama...that work was pleasant. It was encouraging, and brought a smile to Dreamweaver's face. She remembered the wonderful feeling of seeing bravery in their eyes, and understanding. She had given them a small gift. The right direction. That was all. But this....   
The blackness was burning away from within.   
_ ...this..._   
Her opponent crumpled away to the ground, her hands clawing weakly at her face, which was caving in on itself. The black hole in her heart was drawing her into itself. The abyss she shaped with its power drawing her body in as well. There was no breath in her to scream, though her mouth opened. Panic and terror refracted in the slit eyes. Her body became skeletal, shrinking and collapsing on itself. Small choking sounds emanated from within her, as the remains of Nehelenia began to catch on the stirrings of air, and blow faintly away. The ribbons of her black hair flowed as her body shrunk.   
In the silence, only the dust floated, gleaming golden, like the faded fireflies that had fallen in the darkness.   
  
_ I..._   
Dreamweaver staggered back a step.   
_ I..._   
She sunk to her knees, holding onto the naginata to keep herself from falling. Flowing black hair coiled around her knees as she tried to breathe.   
_That was beyond death...._   
Tears flowed freely from her eyes, and she wiped them hastily, painfully. This was her duty, wasn't it? As a senshi?   
_That is worse than death...._   
_Death is an escape. Whether that escape is release from a long life, lived well, or escape from a short, pained life. It is still escape. Good or bad. A new life, or a time in the Land of the Dead._ She was dizzy, though the world around her grew brighter as the dark night passed, and dawn began to rise.   
_ But this is the destruction of the soul...._   
Her hands clutched tightly around the shaft of the weapon she held. Pale purple eyes blinking, filled with tears, she looked up at the cold gleam of metal.   
_Is that, then, what happens to one who has lost all their dreams, and understands only nightmares?_   
Her stomach churned, and she fought the urgings of nausea.   
_That was not a body, but a soul I killed. Her body was gone long ago, fighting Sailor Moon. But that soul remained trapped here forever. And I...I..._   
She held a hand to her mouth, fighting bile.   
_ This is my inheritance, from the planet of Death and Destruction. Destruction of the mind, the soul, not of the body.... Saturn, we are of the same power, but of opposite ends. And gods, I wonder which of us bears the heavier end...._   
  
Around her, the world began to fade and crumble. The rumbling of destruction was nonexistent, replaced with tiny sounds, as though sand blew away in the wind. The daylight was burning away the night, washing away the remainders of the dark dream. And eventually, all that would be left was a vague memory.   
_This is the remains of her mind. And it crumbles now to ashes._   
Dreamweaver stood, using the weapon in her hands to stand. No rubble fell within the illumination she produced, but the vanishing world fell away, closing in towards where she stood, just under the pink petals of the sakura tree.   
Lightly, she lifted the naginata, touching the pointed tip into the fabric of timespace, and made a small incision. Delicately, she tore into the emptiness, a long, vertical cut her own height. Her lavender eyes cast a quiet glance around her, and the destruction falling closer to her.   
Then she stepped inside the rift.   
  
  


Light played off the whirling coils of smoke, refracting idly off the sharp edges of cascading glass. Slowly the shards fell, clattering to the hard floor, and shattering into speckles of mirror. Thousands of tiny fragments reflected all corners, all angles, distorting, piecing together, a mismatched mosaic of emptiness. Frames without mirrors circled the room, and the throne within it. Three figures lay on the ground, dust and slivers of silver glass falling onto their shoulders and faces.   
A soft crunching sound was heard lightly, as the first figure moved hesitantly upward, her white wings twitching in the cloudy air. Armlength away, the purple clad senshi lay, her head turned to the side, eyes closed lightly, flickering. Sailor Moon placed a hand to her forehead, touching it gently and looking at her fingertips, seeing the faint speckles of red blood against the whiteness of her glove. A tiny cut, just under her bangs, trickling slowly down her temple. She gasped lightly, turning her head to see Yume stir, the world around her shifting with the rising of her form. Motion from Saturn distracted them, as the younger senshi lifted her head and opened her eyes, slowly rolling herself over and half sitting, then standing, using her glaive as a brace.   
Yume sat herself up, her cards around her hands, which she rested on the floor. Blue eyes watched the pair across from her stand, distantly and emotionlessly. Nebulous blackness hedged her vision, and she tasted blood in her mouth, biting too hard on impact with the ground. Echoes sounded though the room, the evidence of approaching footsteps, voices layering atop each other as they found their way though the remaining maze. No mirrors to distract, to trick and to fool. It was merely a chain of hallways, all eventually reaching the center. Here.   
She bowed her head, and saw the card of the High Priestess lying at her palms, the crescent on her brow marred by a shard of glass. Lightly, Yume picked it off, dusting the card that represented mystical knowledge.   
"She's gone," Yume murmured, as much to the card as to her growing audience. The two were joined by Pluto and Mercury, and the footsteps behind them grew quiet as more approached, stopping when they saw only a thin little girl, cradling a card in her hands. "Gone..." she repeated, picking up another card, Empress. Then Queen of Swords, Sun, Two of Pentacles...all the Major Arcana, the trumps, the suits, weakly picking up the mess she made. What a mess Yume always made, what a pointless mess. And what had stupid Yume accomplished, other than to hurt people? Stupid, stupid Yume, who didn't know what to do. There was something empty in her mind, far away and hollow. Something had been severed, sliced away. The Lady of the Mirrors...her voice was incessantly there, and now gone. Empty and gone away, far away....   
Across from her, one of the senshi lifted a hand, and golden power surged around it. But as quickly as it was formed, it stopped. Neptune placed a hand on Uranus's shoulder, stopping the attack before it tore across the room. Startled, the sky senshi looked at her. Neptune only held a finger to her lips, asking for quiet, shaking her head. A silent plea for her partner to be still. It wasn't a thing Uranus liked, but trust won out in the end.   
"Nehelenia controlled you, didn't she?" Sailor Moon asked lightly, and there were startled murmurs from half the group, bewildered eyes filled with question. Quietly, Mercury nodded, her suspicions correct. She imitated Neptune's motion, a finger to her lips, asking for silence. Now was not the time for explanations.   
"Oh, was that her name?" Yume replied distantly as she shuffled the deck into a neat stack. "No, you're wrong. I decided to help her."   
Flip...flip....   
"But I saw her in the mirrors...."   
Yume did not look up. "She was stuck in there, and hated it. So I helped her, since she helped me." Flip, flip. Shuffle. "You killed her a long time ago. But she was still trapped. She's gone now." Lightly, Yume began to lay her spread of cards, in a Celtic Cross formation. "Gone away," she sung in a whisper. "Far away."   
Gently, their leader tried to walk forward, feet crunching the glass below. She offered a hand, empty and palm outward. "Yume, why don't you come with us?"   
At that, her eyes snapped upward, cold and hard. "Why? So you can tell me about how happy I'll be outside this place? Don't you get it, Usagi-baka? All your beliefs about friendship carrying you through? It doesn't apply to me. I don't have anyone to live for. I don't have the perfect boyfriend, the perfect family, the perfect set of friends. I don't have anything at all."   
"Yume," came another voice, and the movement of Saturn stepping forward to join Sailor Moon. After a moment, she walked quietly past her as Yume's face closed in on itself, gaze returning to the cards in her hands. "Yume," Saturn repeated as she bent down, kneeling and setting the glaive aside. "She held you in her grip so long. But this time, there were physical repercussions." Saturn placed a hand on top of Yume's, halting the worrying motions of the cards. Her breath came out sharply, shallowly, as Saturn continued, "Chibiusa-chan and I were taking Onee-san to the movies on Friday. Would you believe she's never been to the cinema?"   
Puzzled though the distance, Yume looked at Saturn, who was smiling faintly, head tilted to the side in a birdlike fashion, almost curious. "If you like, you can come with us."   
Rapidly, Yume's eyes blinked, taking in the words. Saturn was smiling kindly, and Yume felt her mouth open and close several times, in silence. But Yume was freakish. Tomoe-san chose to fight with the others. She wasn't on her side. Was she? No, of course not. But then why? After all this? Who would want to help the one who nearly killed them? The movies? How long had it been since Yume had been to the theater? Popcorn sticky to feet, sweet, golden butter. Calories. Fat. She shivered, and her thin hands withdrew from Saturn's clasp.   
"I don't know...."   
"Don't worry. We can get in contact tomorrow, ne? It'll be fun."   
Fun? Yume? Fun?   
"O...okay...."   
"Promise?"   
This time Saturn's face was serious.   
Faintly, Yume nodded once. "H...hai...promise. Tomorrow."   
The smile returned to Sailor Saturn's face as she stood, picking up her glaive and backing away, bowing slightly. "Ja ne, Yume-chan."   
Quietly, she backed away from the still girl, sitting amidst the broken dream mirrors. One by one, they turned away, following the smallest of them. Some with mixed emotions, others with understanding, others with contempt. Sailor Moon remained, standing still and watching Yume as her head bowed again, fingers tracing lightly over the Tarot cards.   
What about those who had no one?   
It bothered her.   
Loneliness was supposed to vanish in the future when she was Neo-Queen. The world would be a utopia. Peace and love, light and dreams. Emptiness would have no place. Something tugged at her memory. Wasn't utopia...wasn't the word utopia supposed to mean, 'nowhere'? It chilled the final senshi in the room. Could such a place truly exist, and still allow for free will? Nowhere, the utopia of the future....   
She turned away, unsure.   
And Yume remained in the room, with her cards. 

There was no time or space in the dark room. But the pattern of cards gave it substance. A neat spread, clear in meaning, the images on the cards resounding off each other clearly. High Priestess, Sun, Magician. Queen of Swords....they blended and merged into one puzzle, and the image grew clearer as she looked at the pattern. Regularity, form, safety, knowledge.   
Her stomach rumbled.   
She wrapped thin arms around her waist, clamping down on her hollow stomach to keep it from growling noisily.   
"I'm hungry," Yume decided after a moment. She said it aloud, hearing the words in her ears to reinforce it.   
It had, after all, been a long time since she was hungry.   
"I'm going to get something to eat."   
So she gathered up her cards, piling them neatly, folding them into her hands.   
Then she stood, and walked out of the dark maze.   
  


Mamoru knelt down, handing the glass of water to Chibiusa, who was sitting still on the couch. Wrapping her small finger around the glass, she sipped at the cold water with relief and worry.   
"Any better?" Mamoru asked her, eyes even with her own. She nodded, looking down and resting the glass in her lap. "I'm glad."   
"How long ago did they leave? Can we catch up to them?"   
Mamoru stood, frowning, looking at the top of the pink haired head, still bowed as she looked down into the floating ice. She was pale, but otherwise awake and alert. And he wanted to join the fight as much as she did. Being left out always left a feeling of emptiness. Not being able to help. They were as much a part of the team as any.   
"I think so," he decided, and saw Chibiusa's face lift in surprise. She had been expecting him to tell her no. That she was still too weak.   
Before Mamoru could change his mind, Chibiusa leapt up, setting the water down on the table, and lifting her hand to the air. But even as she completed this motion, there was a rustling sound in the distance, and a faint sound of a key sliding into a lock with a click. Footsteps sounded in the polished hallways, and Chibiusa's hand fell from the air as Usagi's face came into the doorway, moving to stand closer to her future daughter and husband.   
"Chibiusa-chan? Daijobu ka?"   
Chibiusa sighed, looking at the numbers of senshi filing into the room, one after another. As each face registered, Haruka bringing up the rear, she sighed and sat down again. "I'm all right. It went well, since everyone's back okay?"   
"Yeah," Makoto sighed, tilting her head to the side and folding her arms as she leaned up against one of the armchairs. "We came back to check up on you."   
"I'm better, really," Chibiusa urged, moving over as Hotaru joined her on the couch. "I don't think...well...." Chibiusa tried to decide what to say. She didn't know how the battle with Yume had gone, not yet. "...I just don't think she was trying to kill me...." Quietly, she looked around her. "Did you...?"   
"No, Chibiusa-chan," Hotaru replied, guessing at what her friend was getting at. "Yume is going to be okay."   
"I'm going to go check on Kami-chan," Ami said softly to Setsuna, edging her way aside. "Let her know everyone's back and all right." There was a pause as she hovered in the archway. "Which room?"   
"The end of the hall," Setsuna murmured back, and Ami wedged herself out of the room, slipping down the darkened hallway. Only one room had its door closed, and so she approached it as there was more talking behind her.   
"I still don't like leaving her off the hook," Rei mumbled, frowning as she stood beside Makoto. She made a fist, shaking her head. "It still doesn't fit right. And what about those girls in the hospital? We can't just-"   
"Rei-chan," Minako interrupted. "For starters, I think those girls deserved it...."   
"Minako!" Rei stared, disbelieving, but Minako was continuing.   
"They're cruel. So was Yume. Neither of them were right, but...well...." the pretty soldier of Love trailed off, uncertainly, not sure what to say. She bit her lip, resting a hand to her chin with confusion. "And to top it off, Nehelenia was giving-"   
She got as far as the name when Mamoru and Chibiusa both started, mouths open, both managing astonished questions. "Nehelenia? Nani? What does she have to do with this?"   
Before a response could be given, Ami appeared back in the living room, looking a bit harried. Her eyes moved quickly around the room, and she burst out, "Kami isn't in her room. Mamoru-san, did you see her?"   
Hotaru stood up, answering, "She's not in here. Did you check the library?"   
"No, would she leave the house?"   
"Ne, Kanashimi-chan, don't worry...." a faint voice said from behind, and the assembly of senshi turned, some leaning around others to better see the forming figure in the shadows. Though the lights were on in the living room, the halls were still in the dark. A gleam of silver reflected first, the tip of the naginata emerging first as the new figure stepped forward, Ami and Setsuna moving aside to make way for the newest member. Tired, her head was slightly bent, leaving long trails of black hair to hang over her shoulders.   
"Kami-chan..." Ami blinked, then her face lit up. "You were able to henshin!"   
There were smiles spread around the group, jostling forward to see the newest senshi. "What is it with your family and purple, Hotaru?" Haruka joked lightly, hanging back as the more curious Inners crowded around, examining the fuku. Minako was commenting again on earrings, or the lack thereof. Ami, however, was trying to push everyone back. "Minna, give Dreamweaver some space, onegai?"   
"It's all right, Kanashimi-chan," Dreamweaver sighed, shaking her head and giving a small smile. "I just wanted to let you know I was back...."   
"But you weren't there a second ago...." Ami replied, bewildered. "How?"   
"I...I don't know...." she murmured, lowering her head again. "I just moved from one place to the other...."   
"It seems," said Setsuna with a tone of professionalism, "that you're able to teleport yourself within subspace."   
"Sailor Teleport?" several voices chorused in disbelief. Michiru was first to get out an intelligent question, raising her voice over the excited babblings of the younger, Inner senshi. "But I thought we needed to be together to do that...."   
Setsuna shrugged. "I'm able to."   
Blinks.   
Then, wryly, Mamoru commented, "So that's how you're always disappearing."   
Setsuna allowed herself a small grin, then brushed a stray lock of hair over her shoulder. "It would also explain," she continued, distracting them from further questioning, "how Kami arrived here after Hotaru-chan and Ami-chan found her." She glanced at Usagi, who had shifted herself closer to Mamoru.   
"Minna...I'm very tired...." Dreamweaver tried to interrupt, so that she could politely leave. Manners were nothing but ingrained in her actions, and disappearing without warning was against her personality. But as she said this quietly, it went unheard in the next comment.   
"I'd still like to know what happened to Nehelenia."   
It didn't seem to matter who said it. As soon as the words were spoken, several voices were raised, from worried to unsure. It was a heavy cracking sound that interrupted them, silencing the newest round of conversation. Eyes swung to Dreamweaver, who had placed both hands on her naginata, and pounded the end of it into the floor, causing the loud sound. The pale lavender grey eyes did not meet any others, and her hands were tense on the weapon's shaft. "Nehelenia is gone," she said flatly, tonelessly, gently. "The spirit entrapped in the mirrors is gone." She paused a moment, in the silence, and took a breath, her shoulders shivering slightly as she gathered herself, looking up. "Gomen ne, if I worried you about being late. I went to the hospital. The victims should be awakening soon," she finished. Standing closest to her, Ami was able to see the tension in her arms and hands as she completed her speech. "Gomen nasai, if I worried anyone. I'm very tired...." she sighed, and the grip on her naginata relaxed, faint wisps of mist ghosting out around her body as the fuku faded away, returning to the simple, denim skirt and black blouse. Her tiny dreamcatcher necklace glinted slightly, the webbing trailing down under the fabric of the collar. "I'm very tired. I'm going to rest." Politely, she bowed, backing away and disappearing back into the dim hallway.   
There was a moment as the remaining senshi watched her disappear, and they heard the sound of a door closing gently. "I'm going to go talk to her...." Ami began, turning to follow.   
"Matte," Hotaru interrupted her before she could move. "I think we should leave Onee-san alone."   
"But...." Usagi began to ask, obviously in agreement with Ami.   
Hotaru shook her head, folding her hands before her. "She needs some time alone, ne? She was able to henshin...and she now understands her powers. I think she just needs a little time to adjust."   
There were uncertain glances at Hotaru, but then, this was Hotaru, and if anyone would know, she would.   


In her room, Kami pulled the loops out of her hair, and set the ribbon that held it in place on her dresser. Mumbled sounds were still audible from there, voices talking in the living room. After awhile, they grew quieter, and began to cease as the door began to open and close, senshi departing into the night. Kami slid open the door of her closet, and took Chrysanthemum Rain off its hanger. The folds of silk and damask were still rich and full, as though sewn yesterday. It smelled sweet, faintly of perfume, incense she had made with her own hands so long ago. Noiselessly and with familiar grace, she slipped into the clothing, feeling it drape over her arms and legs softly, the cloth rustling as she loosely tied it into place. The cuffs slipped over her wrists, layers creating an illusion of length and beauty. In such clothes, she floated, like a moon over willow trees, bare feet silent on the carpet as she went to stand before her lace-draped window.   
_And the stars will still shine, and the moon will still glow, and I will continue to lead this strange new life I have been given._   
And the star in her heart glowed divine.   
  
  
  
  


******************** 

The End....   
lol, this one was such an oddity to write. First fic with Kami pretty much as central character. Early on in the fic, the song Kami sings is '_Miss Dream._' Which Hotaru sung to her in Japanese earlier in the fic. (I told you I'd use the song again, this time in English. ^_~) The scenes in the Moon Palace, the flashback with Nehelenia, is also an excerpt from the manga. I just transferred it to written format, and from Dreamweavers' perspective.   
I wanted Kami, as the representative of dreams, to face off against Nehelenia, since she was the major villain in that type of story arc. So I borrowed the anime's 'Nehelenia Returns' idea and took it from there. In the anime though, in the Nehelenia Arc of Stars, she's much more of a sympathetic character. (And she makes such a kawaii chibi-Nehelenia! But who doesn't look cute in chibi form?) I didn't know how much to imitate the anime. And I decided that since the manga tends to be more direct and deadly, then I would go ahead with my original plan to kill her. The story operates pretty much on the assumption that Nehelenia's soul remains trapped within the mirror, even after Sailor Moon killed her (physically, at least) in the SS arc of the manga.   
As for Dreamweaver's power, I've tried to keep her on an even keel with Saturn. Just the opposite end of the same power. Saturn's powers seem to revolve around death and rebirth, seemingly around the physical body. I've noticed that at times, Saturn will show bits of intuition about dreams. (ie, realizing there was something not right about the Amazoness Quartet in the manga.) It was from that idea that 'Nightmare Relevation' came.... (I thought of the attack before what exactly it did....o.O backwards of me, ne?)   
And Yume. I'm not sure what to say about her. She is a very mixed up girl. But then who isn't? The '_Golden Rule_' started out with Yume, though it took me awhile to give her a name. Her Tarot attacks, and the fact she was bulimic were early ideas, and the plot wrapped its way around itself from there. Like with Nehelenia, I wasn't sure whether or not she would live or die at the end. All in all, I decided I wanted her alive. So what happens to her from this point on will have to be resolved in other stories. After all, she does know the senshi's identities. Have to see what the Muses say for Yume's future....   
And speaking of the Muses, at the moment I am idealess for future Kami fics. If you have any random ideas of brilliance, pass them along, even if off the wall. Inspiration is born of eccentricity, ne?   
And on a final note, I'd like to thank Miss Dream, (the fanfic author, not the song I keep ranting about ^_~) for pre-reading and giving me feedback for _'Golden Rule._' Arigatou gozimasu. You've been an endless help....^_^   
Well, for now, my tale is told. Feel free to email, even if it's been awhile since the fic was posted. I'm alive, I swear!   
So then, til next storytime.   
Ja ne.   
-Queen 

iceaffinity@hotmail.com 


End file.
